Hotel Chelsea
A well-known residence for artists, musicians and writers, the Hotel Chelsea is located in the neighborhood of Chelsea in New York City. The hotel welcomes guests, but is primarily known for its long-term residents, past and present. The Hotel houses artworks created by many of the artists who have visited.
The building that now houses the Hotel Chelsea was built in 1883 as a private apartment cooperative and opened in 1884. It was the tallest building in New York until 1902.
At the time Chelsea, and particularly 23rd Street, on which the hotel is located (near the intersection of 7th Avenue), was the center of New York's Theater District. Within a few years, a combination of economic worries and the theatres' relocation, had driven the Chelsea cooperative bankrupt. In 1905, the building was purchased and opened as a hotel.
The Hotel has always been a centre of artistic and bohemian activity. It is perhaps most well known as the hotel where Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols stabbed his girlfriend Nancy Spungen to death.
During its lifetine Hotel Chelsea has provided a home to many great writers and thinkers including Mark Twain, O. Henry, Dylan Thomas, Arthur C. Clarke, William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Leonard Cohen, Arthur Miller, Quentin Crisp, Gore Vidal, Tennessee Williams, Allen Ginsberg, Brendan Behan, Robert Oppenheimer, Jean-Paul Sartre and feminist great Simone de Beauvoir. The hotel has always been a home to actors and film directors such as, Stanley Kubrick, Milos Forman, Lily Langtree, Dennis Hopper and Jane Fonda.
Much of Hotel Chelsea's history has been colored by the musicians who have resided there. Some of the most prominent names include Patti Smith, Dee Dee Ramone of The Ramones, Henri Chopin, John Cale, Edith Piaf, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jobriath. The hotel has featured in and collected the work of the many visual artists who have passed through. Brett Whiteley, Christo, Richard Bernstein, Robert Mapplethorpe, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Robert Crumb, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, and Henri Cartier-Bresson have all spent time at Hotel Chelsea.
Hotel Chelsea is often associated with the Warhol superstars. Chelsea residents from the Warhol scene included Viva, Ultra Violet, Holly Woodlawn, Edie Sedgwick, Andrea Feldman, Nico of the Velvet Underground, Paul America and Brigid Berlin.
Much of an episode of the groundbreaking 1973 PBS reality-television series An American Family was filmed at the Hotel Chelsea, as family member Lance Loud was staying there at the time.
The hotel was the first building to be listed by New York City as a cultural preservation site and historic building of note.
The hotel was used for location shooting on
- Sid & Nancy (1986) by Paul Cox
- Midnight In Chelsea (1997) by Jon Bon Jovi for the video from his 1997 solo project Destination Anywhere
- Chelsea Walls (2001) by Ethan Hawke
- Pie in the Sky the Brigid Berlin Story (2002) features a reunion between former resident Brigid Berlin and the artist Richard Bernstein at the Hotel.
- Chelsea Girls (external link).