Chelsea, Manhattan
Encyclopedia
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough
of Manhattan
in New York City
. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street
to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District
– which lies between the Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) and Seventh Avenue
– to the east, and the Hudson River
and West Street to the west. To the north of Chelsea is the neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen
, also known as "Clinton," to the northeast is the Garment District
, to the east are NoMad
and the Flatiron District, to the southwest is the Meatpacking District and to the southeast is the West Village.
Chelsea is divided between Manhattan Community Board 4
and Manhattan Community Board 5
. It contains the Chelsea Historic District and its extension, which were designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
in 1970 and 1981, respectively, and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, expanded in 1982 to include contiguous blocks containing particularly significant examples of period architecture.
The neighborhood is primarily residential, with a mix of tenements, apartment blocks, city housing projects
, townhouses and renovated rowhouses, and its many retail businesses reflect the ethnic and social diversity of the population. The western part of Chelsea has become a center of the New York art world, with many art galleries located in both new buildings and rehabilitated warehouses.
house of retired British Major Thomas Clarke, who obtained the property when he bought the farm of Jacob Somerindyck on August 16, 1750. The land was bounded by what would become 21st and 24th Streets, from the Hudson River to Eighth Avenue. Clarke chose the name "Chelsea" after the manor of Chelsea, London
, home to Sir Thomas More
. Clarke passed the estate on to his daughter, Charity, who, with her husband Benjamin Moore
, added land on the south of the estate, extending it to 19th Street. The house was the birthplace of their son, Clement Clarke Moore
, who in turn inherited the property. Moore is generally credited with writing "A Visit From St. Nicholas
" and was the author of the first Greek and Hebrew lexicons printed in the United States.
In 1827, Moore gave the land of his apple orchard to the Episcopal Diocese of New York
for the General Theological Seminary
, which built its brownstone Gothic, tree-shaded campus south of the manor house. Despite his objections to the Commissioner's Plan of 1811, which ran the new Ninth Avenue
through the middle of his estate, Moore began the development of Chelsea with the help of James N. Wells, dividing it up into lots along Ninth Avenue and selling them to well-heeled New Yorkers. Covenants in the deeds of sale specified what could be built on the land – stables, manufacturing and commercial uses were forbidden – as well as architectural details of the buildings.
The new neighborhood thrived for three decades, with many single family homes and rowhouses, in the process expanding past the original boundaries of Clarke's estate, but an industrial zone also began to develop along the Hudson. In 1847 the Hudson River Railroad
laid its freight tracks up a right-of-way
between Tenth and Eleventh Avenue
s, separating Chelsea from the Hudson River
waterfront. The industrialization of western Chelsea followed, and brought immigrant populations from many countries to work in the factories, including a large number of Irish immigrants, who dominated work on the Hudson River piers that lined the nearby waterfront and the truck terminals integrated with the freight railroad spur. As well as the piers, warehouses and factories, the industrial area west of Tenth Avenue also included lumberyards and breweries, and tenements built to house the workers. With the immigrant population came the political domination of the neighborhood by the Tammany Hall
machine
, as well as festering ethnic tensions: around 67 people died in a riot between Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants on July 12, 1871
, which took place around 24th Street and Eighth Avenue. The social problems of the area's workers provoked John Lovejoy Elliot to form the Hudson Guild
in 1897, one of the first settlement houses – private organizations designed to provide social services.
A theatre district formed in the area by 1869, and soon West 23rd Street was the center of American theater, led by Pike's Opera House
(1868, demolished 1960), on the northwest corner of Eighth Avenue. Chelsea was an early center for the motion picture industry before World War I. Some of Mary Pickford
's first pictures were made on the top floors of an armory building at 221 West 26th Street, while other studios were located on 23rd and 21st Streets.
London Terrace was one of the world's largest apartment blocks when it opened in 1930, with a swimming pool, solarium
, gymnasium, and doormen dressed as London bobbies. Other major housing complexes in the Chelsea area are Penn South
, a 1962 Mitchell-Lama cooperative housing development sponsored by the International Ladies Garment Workers' Union, and the New York City Housing Authority
-built and -operated Fulton Houses
and Chelsea-Elliot Houses
.
The massive 19-story Art Deco
Verizon building, which spans the block between 17th and 18th Streets just off of Seventh Avenue
, was built in the early 1930s. It typifies the real estate activity of the district in that in 2011 it is under consideration for conversion to condos.
In the early 1940s, tons of uranium
for the Manhattan Project
were stored in the Baker & Williams Warehouse at 513-519 West 20th St. The uranium was removed and decontaminated only in the late 1980s or early 1990s.
s and clothing boutiques are plentiful. Tekserve
, a vast Apple
computer repair shop, serves nearby Silicon Alley
and the area's large creative community. The Chelsea Lofts district – the former fur and flower district – is located roughly between Sixth and Seventh Avenues from 23rd to 30th streets. Chelsea has a large gay population, stereotyped as gym-toned "Chelsea boys."
Most recently, Chelsea has become an alternative shopping destination with Barneys CO-OP
- which replaced the much larger original Barneys flagship store - Comme des Garçons
, and Balenciaga
boutiques, as well as being near Alexander McQueen
, Stella McCartney
, Christian Louboutin
. Chelsea Market
, on the ground floor of the former Nabisco
Building, is a destination for food lovers.
As New York's visual arts community moved from SoHo to West Chelsea in the 1990s, the area bounded by 10th and 11th Avenues and 18th St. and 28th St. has become one of the global centers of contemporary art. The West Chelsea Arts District is home to over 370 art galleries and innumerable artist studios.
– also known as the William T. Harris School, Public School 33 – the Chelsea School, Intermediate School 70 – also known as the O'Henry School, Liberty High School For Newcomers, Lab School
, and the Humanities Educational Complex, which contains a number of small schools and academies. Private secondary schools in the neighborhood include the Catholic Xavier High School
.
Chelsea is also home to the Fashion Institute of Technology
, a specialized SUNY
unit that serves as a training ground for the city's fashion and design industries. The School of Visual Arts
, an independent college and the public High School of Fashion Industries
also have a presence in the design fields.
The neighborhood is also home to the General Theological Seminary
of the Episcopal Church, the oldest seminary in the Anglican Communion
. The Center for Jewish History
, a consortium of several national research organizations, is a unified library, exhibition, conference, lecture, and performance venue, located on 17th Street
between Fifth and Sixth
Avenues.
, the neighborhood is post-industrial, featuring the newly-hip High Line that follows the river all through Chelsea. Eighth Avenue is a center for LGBT
-oriented shopping and dining, and from 20th to 22nd Streets between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, mid-nineteenth-century brick and brownstone townhouses are still occupied, a few even restored to single family use.
Since the mid-1990s, Chelsea has become a center of the New York art world, as art galleries
moved there from SoHo
. From 16th Street to 27th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues, there are more than 350 art galleries that are home to modern art from upcoming artists and respected artists as well. Along with the art galleries, Chelsea is home to the Rubin Museum of Art
- with a focus on Himalayan art, the Chelsea Art Museum
, the Graffiti Research Lab
and the Dance Theater Workshop
- a performance space and support organization for dance companies. The community, in fact, is home to many highly regarded performance venues, among them the Joyce Theater
- one of the city's premier modern dance emporiums and The Kitchen
- a center for cutting-edge theatrical and visual arts.
With a change in zoning resolution in conjunction with the development of the High Line
, Chelsea has experienced a new construction boom, with projects by notable architects such as Shigeru Ban
, Neil Denari
, Jean Nouvel
, and Frank Gehry
.
The Chelsea neighborhood is served by two weekly newspapers, the Chelsea-Clinton News and Chelsea Now.
Borough (New York City)
New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...
of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street
14th Street (Manhattan)
14th Street is a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The street rivals the size of some of the well-known avenues of the city and is an important business location....
to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District
Ladies' Mile Historic District
The Ladies' Mile Historic District was designated in May 1989, by the New York City Landmark Preservation Commission to preserve an irregular district of 440 buildings on 28 blocks and parts of blocks in Manhattan, from roughly 18th Street to 24th Street and from Park Avenue South to west of the...
– which lies between the Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) and Seventh Avenue
Seventh Avenue (Manhattan)
Seventh Avenue, known as Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard north of Central Park, is a thoroughfare on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is southbound below Central Park and a two-way street north of the park....
– to the east, and the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
and West Street to the west. To the north of Chelsea is the neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen
Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton and Midtown West, is a neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City between 34th Street and 59th Street, from 8th Avenue to the Hudson River....
, also known as "Clinton," to the northeast is the Garment District
Garment District, Manhattan
The Garment District, also known as the Garment Center, the Fashion District, or the Fashion Center, is a neighborhood located in the Manhattan borough of New York City. The dense concentration of fashion-related uses give the neighborhood, which is generally considered to span between Fifth Avenue...
, to the east are NoMad
NoMad
NoMad is a neighborhood centered around the Madison Square North Historic District in the borough of Manhattan in New York City....
and the Flatiron District, to the southwest is the Meatpacking District and to the southeast is the West Village.
Chelsea is divided between Manhattan Community Board 4
Manhattan Community Board 4
The Manhattan Community Board 4 is a local government unit of New York City, encompassing the neighborhoods of Hell's Kitchen and Chelsea in the borough of Manhattan...
and Manhattan Community Board 5
Manhattan Community Board 5
Manhattan Community Board 5 is a local government unit of New York City, New York in the United States. It encompasses Midtown, Times Square, most of the Theatre District, the Diamond District, the Garment District, Herald Square, Koreatown, NoMad, Murray Hill and the Flatiron District, all in the...
. It contains the Chelsea Historic District and its extension, which were designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The Commission was created in April 1965 by Mayor Robert F. Wagner following the destruction of Pennsylvania Station the previous year to make way for...
in 1970 and 1981, respectively, and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, expanded in 1982 to include contiguous blocks containing particularly significant examples of period architecture.
The neighborhood is primarily residential, with a mix of tenements, apartment blocks, city housing projects
New York City Housing Authority
The New York City Housing Authority provides public housing for low- and moderate-income residents throughout the five boroughs of New York City. NYCHA also administers a citywide Section 8 Leased Housing Program in rental apartments...
, townhouses and renovated rowhouses, and its many retail businesses reflect the ethnic and social diversity of the population. The western part of Chelsea has become a center of the New York art world, with many art galleries located in both new buildings and rehabilitated warehouses.
History
Chelsea takes its name from the estate and Georgian-styleGeorgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...
house of retired British Major Thomas Clarke, who obtained the property when he bought the farm of Jacob Somerindyck on August 16, 1750. The land was bounded by what would become 21st and 24th Streets, from the Hudson River to Eighth Avenue. Clarke chose the name "Chelsea" after the manor of Chelsea, London
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
, home to Sir Thomas More
Thomas More
Sir Thomas More , also known by Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important councillor to Henry VIII of England and, for three years toward the end of his life, Lord Chancellor...
. Clarke passed the estate on to his daughter, Charity, who, with her husband Benjamin Moore
Benjamin Moore
Benjamin Moore was the second Episcopal bishop of New York.-Early life and family:Moore was born in Newtown, New York, in 1748, the son of Samuel Moore and Sarah Fish Moore and the great-grandson of John Moore, the first Independent minister allowed in New England...
, added land on the south of the estate, extending it to 19th Street. The house was the birthplace of their son, Clement Clarke Moore
Clement Clarke Moore
Clement Clarke Moore was an American professor of Oriental and Greek literature at Columbia College, now Columbia University. He donated land from his family estate for the foundation of the General Theological Seminary, where he was a professor of Biblical learning and compiled a two-volume...
, who in turn inherited the property. Moore is generally credited with writing "A Visit From St. Nicholas
A Visit from St. Nicholas
"A Visit from St. Nicholas", also known as "The Night Before Christmas" and "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" from its first line, is a poem first published anonymously in 1823 and generally attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, although the claim has also been made that it was written by Henry...
" and was the author of the first Greek and Hebrew lexicons printed in the United States.
In 1827, Moore gave the land of his apple orchard to the Episcopal Diocese of New York
Episcopal Diocese of New York
The Episcopal Diocese of New York is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, encompassing the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island in New York City, and the New York state counties of Westchester, Rockland, Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Sullivan, and...
for the General Theological Seminary
General Theological Seminary
The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church is a seminary of the Episcopal Church in the United States and is located in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York....
, which built its brownstone Gothic, tree-shaded campus south of the manor house. Despite his objections to the Commissioner's Plan of 1811, which ran the new Ninth Avenue
Ninth Avenue (Manhattan)
Ninth Avenue / Columbus Avenue is a southbound thoroughfare on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Traffic runs downtown along its full length...
through the middle of his estate, Moore began the development of Chelsea with the help of James N. Wells, dividing it up into lots along Ninth Avenue and selling them to well-heeled New Yorkers. Covenants in the deeds of sale specified what could be built on the land – stables, manufacturing and commercial uses were forbidden – as well as architectural details of the buildings.
The new neighborhood thrived for three decades, with many single family homes and rowhouses, in the process expanding past the original boundaries of Clarke's estate, but an industrial zone also began to develop along the Hudson. In 1847 the Hudson River Railroad
West Side Line (NYCRR)
The West Side Line, also called the West Side Freight Line, is a railroad line on the west side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. North of Penn Station, from 34th Street, the line is used by Amtrak passenger service heading north via Albany to Toronto, Montreal and Chicago...
laid its freight tracks up a right-of-way
Right-of-way (railroad)
A right-of-way is a strip of land that is granted, through an easement or other mechanism, for transportation purposes, such as for a trail, driveway, rail line or highway. A right-of-way is reserved for the purposes of maintenance or expansion of existing services with the right-of-way...
between Tenth and Eleventh Avenue
Eleventh Avenue (Manhattan)
Eleventh Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the far West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, not far from the Hudson River. It carries downtown traffic only, south of West 44th Street, and two-way traffic north of it....
s, separating Chelsea from the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
waterfront. The industrialization of western Chelsea followed, and brought immigrant populations from many countries to work in the factories, including a large number of Irish immigrants, who dominated work on the Hudson River piers that lined the nearby waterfront and the truck terminals integrated with the freight railroad spur. As well as the piers, warehouses and factories, the industrial area west of Tenth Avenue also included lumberyards and breweries, and tenements built to house the workers. With the immigrant population came the political domination of the neighborhood by the Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society...
machine
Political machine
A political machine is a political organization in which an authoritative boss or small group commands the support of a corps of supporters and businesses , who receive rewards for their efforts...
, as well as festering ethnic tensions: around 67 people died in a riot between Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants on July 12, 1871
Orange Riots
The Orange riots took place in Manhattan, New York City in 1870 and 1871, and involved violent conflict between Irish Protestants, called "Orangemen", and Irish Catholics, along with the New York City Police Department and the New York State National Guard....
, which took place around 24th Street and Eighth Avenue. The social problems of the area's workers provoked John Lovejoy Elliot to form the Hudson Guild
Hudson Guild
The Hudson Guild is a community-based social services organization rooted in and primarily focused on the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It was founded in 1897 by Dr. John Lovejoy Elliott as a settlement house, with the intention of helping to alleviate the problems of the...
in 1897, one of the first settlement houses – private organizations designed to provide social services.
A theatre district formed in the area by 1869, and soon West 23rd Street was the center of American theater, led by Pike's Opera House
Pike's Opera House
Pike's Opera House, later renamed the Grand Opera House, was a theatre in New York City on the northwest corner of 8th Avenue and 23rd Street, in Chelsea, Manhattan.His other Pike's Opera House, in Cincinnati, burned in the Great Fire of Cincinnati, in 1866. Rebuilt after the fire, and the first...
(1868, demolished 1960), on the northwest corner of Eighth Avenue. Chelsea was an early center for the motion picture industry before World War I. Some of Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
's first pictures were made on the top floors of an armory building at 221 West 26th Street, while other studios were located on 23rd and 21st Streets.
London Terrace was one of the world's largest apartment blocks when it opened in 1930, with a swimming pool, solarium
Solarium
Solarium may refer to:* Similar to a Sunroom, a room built largely of glass to afford exposure to the sun. Solariums have glass roofs , unlike sunrooms...
, gymnasium, and doormen dressed as London bobbies. Other major housing complexes in the Chelsea area are Penn South
Penn South
__notoc__Penn South is the common name for the Mutual Redevelopment Houses, a limited-equity housing cooperative development located between Eighth and Ninth Avenues and East 23rd and 29th Streets, in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City...
, a 1962 Mitchell-Lama cooperative housing development sponsored by the International Ladies Garment Workers' Union, and the New York City Housing Authority
New York City Housing Authority
The New York City Housing Authority provides public housing for low- and moderate-income residents throughout the five boroughs of New York City. NYCHA also administers a citywide Section 8 Leased Housing Program in rental apartments...
-built and -operated Fulton Houses
Fulton Houses
The Robert Fulton Houses is a housing project located in the Chelsea neighborhood in the New York City Borough of Manhattan. The site is located between West 16th and 19th Streets and bounded by Ninth and Tenth Avenues. The project consists of 945 apartments in eleven buildings; three of the...
and Chelsea-Elliot Houses
Chelsea-Elliot Houses
The Chelsea-Elliot Houses is a combined housing project of the New York City Housing Authority located between West 25th and 27th Streets and Ninth and Tenth Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City...
.
The massive 19-story Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
Verizon building, which spans the block between 17th and 18th Streets just off of Seventh Avenue
Seventh Avenue (Manhattan)
Seventh Avenue, known as Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard north of Central Park, is a thoroughfare on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is southbound below Central Park and a two-way street north of the park....
, was built in the early 1930s. It typifies the real estate activity of the district in that in 2011 it is under consideration for conversion to condos.
In the early 1940s, tons of uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
for the Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
were stored in the Baker & Williams Warehouse at 513-519 West 20th St. The uranium was removed and decontaminated only in the late 1980s or early 1990s.
Today
The retail stores of Chelsea reflect the ethnic and social diversity of the area's population. Ethnic restaurants, deliDelicatessen
Delicatessen is a term meaning "delicacies" or "fine foods". The word entered English via German,with the old German spelling , plural of Delikatesse "delicacy", ultimately from Latin delicatus....
s and clothing boutiques are plentiful. Tekserve
Tekserve
Tekserve is an American consumer electronics and information technology consulting business based in the Flatiron District, Manhattan, New York City...
, a vast Apple
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
computer repair shop, serves nearby Silicon Alley
Silicon Alley
Silicon Alley is a nickname for an area with a concentration of Internet and new media companies in Manhattan, New York City. Originally, the term referred to the cluster of such companies extending from the Flatiron District down to SoHo and TriBeCa along the Broadway corridor, but as the location...
and the area's large creative community. The Chelsea Lofts district – the former fur and flower district – is located roughly between Sixth and Seventh Avenues from 23rd to 30th streets. Chelsea has a large gay population, stereotyped as gym-toned "Chelsea boys."
Most recently, Chelsea has become an alternative shopping destination with Barneys CO-OP
Barneys New York
Barneys New York is a chain of luxury department stores headquartered in New York City. The chain owns large stores in New York City, Beverly Hills, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Las Vegas, and Scottsdale, and smaller stores in other locations across the United States.Brands sold include...
- which replaced the much larger original Barneys flagship store - Comme des Garçons
Comme des Garçons
Comme des Garçons, written コム・デ・ギャルソン in Japanese and French for "Like Boys," is a Japanese fashion label headed by Rei Kawakubo, who owns the company with her husband Adrian Joffe....
, and Balenciaga
Balenciaga
Balenciaga is a fashion house founded by Cristóbal Balenciaga, a Basque designer, born in the Basque Country, Spain. He had a reputation as a couturier of uncompromising standards and was referred to as "the master of us all" by Christian Dior. His bubble skirts and odd, feminine, yet ultra-modern...
boutiques, as well as being near Alexander McQueen
Alexander McQueen
Lee Alexander McQueen, CBE was a British fashion designer and couturier best known for his in-depth knowledge of bespoke British tailoring, his tendency to juxtapose strength with fragility in his collections, as well as the emotional power and raw energy of his provocative fashion shows...
, Stella McCartney
Stella McCartney
Stella Nina McCartney is an English fashion designer. She is the daughter of former Beatles member Sir Paul McCartney and the late photographer and animal rights activist, Linda McCartney.-Early life:...
, Christian Louboutin
Christian Louboutin
Christian Louboutin is a French footwear designer whose father is cabinetmaker Roger Louboutin and homemaker mother Irene. His siblings include three sisters, no brothers. Landscape architect Louis Benech has been his partner since 1997. Louboutin launched his line of high-end women's shoes in...
. Chelsea Market
Chelsea Market
thumb|267px|The Ninth Avenue entrance to Chelsea MarketChelsea Market is an enclosed urban food court, shopping mall, office building and television production facility located in the Chelsea neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan, in New York City...
, on the ground floor of the former Nabisco
Nabisco
Nabisco is an American brand of cookies and snacks. Headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey, the company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Kraft Foods. Nabisco's plant in Chicago, a production facility at 7300 S...
Building, is a destination for food lovers.
As New York's visual arts community moved from SoHo to West Chelsea in the 1990s, the area bounded by 10th and 11th Avenues and 18th St. and 28th St. has become one of the global centers of contemporary art. The West Chelsea Arts District is home to over 370 art galleries and innumerable artist studios.
Education
There are numerous public schools in Chelsea, including Public School 11PS 11
P.S. 11, Public School 11, or The William T Harris School is a public elementary school that is in Chelsea, Manhattan located on 320 21st street and eighth avenue....
– also known as the William T. Harris School, Public School 33 – the Chelsea School, Intermediate School 70 – also known as the O'Henry School, Liberty High School For Newcomers, Lab School
NYC Lab School
The New York City Lab School for Collaborative Studies is a secondary school in Chelsea, Manhattan, New York City. It consists of grades 6-12 and was described as one of the best schools in Manhattan in 2010 by the New York Post & CUNY...
, and the Humanities Educational Complex, which contains a number of small schools and academies. Private secondary schools in the neighborhood include the Catholic Xavier High School
Xavier High School (New York City)
Xavier High School is a independent Jesuit university-preparatory high school for young men located at 30 West 16th Street, in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It was founded in 1847, as the College of St. Francis Xavier by Father John Larkin, S.J...
.
Chelsea is also home to the Fashion Institute of Technology
Fashion Institute of Technology
The Fashion Institute of Technology, generally known as FIT, is a State University of New York college of art, business, design, and technology connected to the fashion industry, with an urban campus located on West 27th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of...
, a specialized SUNY
State University of New York
The State University of New York, abbreviated SUNY , is a system of public institutions of higher education in New York, United States. It is the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States, with a total enrollment of 465,000 students, plus...
unit that serves as a training ground for the city's fashion and design industries. The School of Visual Arts
School of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...
, an independent college and the public High School of Fashion Industries
High School of Fashion Industries
High School of Fashion Industries is a secondary school located in Manhattan, New York City, New York. HSFI serves grades 9 through 12 and is a part of the New York City Department of Education...
also have a presence in the design fields.
The neighborhood is also home to the General Theological Seminary
General Theological Seminary
The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church is a seminary of the Episcopal Church in the United States and is located in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York....
of the Episcopal Church, the oldest seminary in the Anglican Communion
Anglican Communion
The Anglican Communion is an international association of national and regional Anglican churches in full communion with the Church of England and specifically with its principal primate, the Archbishop of Canterbury...
. The Center for Jewish History
Center for Jewish History
The Center for Jewish History is a partnership, or consortium, of five Jewish organizations based in Manhattan. It is a partnership of five organizations of Jewish history, scholarship, and art: the American Jewish Historical Society, the American Sephardi Federation, the Leo Baeck Institute, the...
, a consortium of several national research organizations, is a unified library, exhibition, conference, lecture, and performance venue, located on 17th Street
17th Street (Manhattan)
17th Street is an east-west running street between First Avenue and Eleventh Avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Traffic runs one way along the street, from east to west excepting the stretch between Broadway and Park Avenue South, where traffic runs in both directions.17th Street...
between Fifth and Sixth
Sixth Avenue (Manhattan)
Sixth Avenue – officially Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown"...
Avenues.
Culture
People of many different cultures live in Chelsea. Above 23rd Street, by the Hudson RiverHudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
, the neighborhood is post-industrial, featuring the newly-hip High Line that follows the river all through Chelsea. Eighth Avenue is a center for LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
-oriented shopping and dining, and from 20th to 22nd Streets between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, mid-nineteenth-century brick and brownstone townhouses are still occupied, a few even restored to single family use.
Since the mid-1990s, Chelsea has become a center of the New York art world, as art galleries
Art gallery
An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...
moved there from SoHo
SoHo
SoHo is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, notable for being the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, and also, more recently, for the wide variety of stores and shops ranging from trendy boutiques to outlets of upscale national and international chain stores...
. From 16th Street to 27th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues, there are more than 350 art galleries that are home to modern art from upcoming artists and respected artists as well. Along with the art galleries, Chelsea is home to the Rubin Museum of Art
Rubin Museum of Art
__notoc__The Rubin Museum of Art is a museum dedicated to the collection, display, and preservation of the art of the Himalayas and surrounding regions, especially that of Tibet...
- with a focus on Himalayan art, the Chelsea Art Museum
Chelsea Art Museum
The Chelsea Art Museum is a contemporary art museum located at 556 West 22nd Street on the corner of Eleventh Avenue in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City....
, the Graffiti Research Lab
Graffiti Research Lab
Graffiti Research Lab, founded by Evan Roth and James Powderly during their fellowships at the Eyebeam OpenLab, is an art group dedicated to outfitting graffiti writers, artists and protesters with open source technologies for urban communication. The members of the group experiment in a lab and in...
and the Dance Theater Workshop
Dance Theater Workshop
Dance Theater Workshop, colloquially known as DTW, is a New York City performance space and service organization for dance companies. Located as 219 West 19th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, DTW was founded in 1965 by Jeff Duncan, Art Bauman and...
- a performance space and support organization for dance companies. The community, in fact, is home to many highly regarded performance venues, among them the Joyce Theater
Joyce Theater
The Joyce Theater is a 472-seat dance performance venue located in the Chelsea area of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The Joyce Theater Foundation, the organization founded in 1982 that operates the theater, also owns the Joyce SoHo dance center located in a former firehouse on Mercer...
- one of the city's premier modern dance emporiums and The Kitchen
The Kitchen
The Kitchen is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary art and performance space located at at 512 West 19th Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City...
- a center for cutting-edge theatrical and visual arts.
With a change in zoning resolution in conjunction with the development of the High Line
High Line
The High Line is a New York City linear park built on a section of the former elevated freight railroad spur called the West Side Line, which runs along the lower west side of Manhattan; it has been redesigned and planted as an aerial greenway...
, Chelsea has experienced a new construction boom, with projects by notable architects such as Shigeru Ban
Shigeru Ban
Shigeru Ban is an accomplished Japanese and international architect, most famous for his innovative work with paper, particularly recycled cardboard paper tubes used to quickly and efficiently house disaster victims...
, Neil Denari
Neil Denari
Neil Denari is an American architect, professor, and author. Based since 1988 in Los Angeles, Denari emerged in New York during the 1980s with a series of theoretical projects and texts based on the collapse of the machine aesthetic of Modernism. His office, Neil M...
, Jean Nouvel
Jean Nouvel
Jean Nouvel is a French architect. Nouvel studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and was a founding member of Mars 1976 and Syndicat de l'Architecture...
, and Frank Gehry
Frank Gehry
Frank Owen Gehry, is a Canadian American Pritzker Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles, California.His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions...
.
The Chelsea neighborhood is served by two weekly newspapers, the Chelsea-Clinton News and Chelsea Now.
Landmarks and places of interest
- Chelsea PiersChelsea PiersChelsea Piers is a series of piers on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City that was a passenger ship terminal in the early 1900s that was used by the RMS Lusitania and was the destination of the RMS Titanic....
– The Chelsea Piers were the city's primary luxury cruise terminal from 1910 until 1935. The RMS Titanic was headed to Pier 60 at the piers and the RMS CarpathiaRMS CarpathiaRMS Carpathia was a Cunard Line transatlantic passenger steamship built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson. Carpathia made her maiden voyage in 1903 and became famous for rescuing the survivors of after the latter ship hit an iceberg and sank on 15 April 1912...
brought survivors to Pier 54 in the complex. The northern piers are now part of an entertainment and sports complex operated by Roland W. BettsRoland W. BettsRoland Whitney Betts is an investor, film producer, developer, and owner of Chelsea Piers in New York City. A classmate and Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity brother of George W. Bush, Betts was the lead owner in Bush's Texas Rangers partnership. He is a graduate of St...
. See also Hudson River ParkHudson River ParkHudson River Park is a waterside park on the Hudson River that extends from 59th Street south to Battery Park in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Bicycle and pedestrian paths, including the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway, span the park north to south, opening up the waterfront for...
.
- Chelsea MarketChelsea Marketthumb|267px|The Ninth Avenue entrance to Chelsea MarketChelsea Market is an enclosed urban food court, shopping mall, office building and television production facility located in the Chelsea neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan, in New York City...
– In an old, restored building, this marketplace hosts a variety of vendors, including bakeries, Italian grocery stores, a fish market, Manhattan Fruit Exchange, wine store, and many others.
- Chelsea StudiosChelsea StudiosChelsea Studios is a television studio and sound stage at 221 West 26th Street in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City.-History:The building was originally an armory that was home to Ninth Mounted Calvary which moved to 14th Street in 1914....
– Sound stageSound stageIn common usage, a sound stage is a soundproof, hangar-like structure, building, or room, used for the production of theatrical filmmaking and television production, usually located on a secure movie studio property.-Overview:...
on 26th Street since 1914 where numerous movies and television shows have been produced.
- Church of the Holy Apostles – Built in 1845-1848 to a design by Minard Lefever, with additions by Lefever in 1853-1854, and transeptTranseptFor the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture...
s by Charles BabcockCharles BabcockCharles Babcock was a United States architect, academic, Episcopal priest and founding member of the American Institute of Architects....
added in 1858, this ItalianateItalianate architectureThe Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...
church was designated a New York City landmark in 1966 and is listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesNational Register of Historic PlacesThe National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. It is Lefever's only surviving building in Manhattan. The building, which featured an octagonal spire, was burned in a serious fire in 1990, but stained glass windowsStained Glass WindowsStained Glass Windows was an early broadcast television program, broadcast on early Sunday evenings on the ABC network. The program was a religious broadcast, hosted by the Reverend Everett Parker....
by William Jay Bolton survived, and the church reopened in April 1994 after a major restoration. The Episcopal parish is notable for hosting the city's largest program to feedthe poor, and is the second and larger home of the LGBTLGBTLGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
-oriented synagogue, Congregation Beth Simchat Torah
- Empire DinerEmpire DinerThe Empire Diner was a restaurant in New York City that launched a vogue for upscale retro diners, and whose Art Moderne exterior became an iconic image in numerous films and television programs....
– An art moderne diner designed by Fodero Dining Car CompanyFodero Dining Car CompanyThe Fodero Dining Car Company was a diner manufacturer located in Newark and later Bloomfield, NJ. It was founded by Italian immigrant Joseph Fodero, who formed the company after constructing diners with P.J. Tierney & Sons and Kullman Industries....
and built in 1946, altered in 1979 by Carl Laanes. Located at 210 Tenth Avenue at 22nd Street, it has been seen in several movies and mentioned in Billy JoelBilly JoelWilliam Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...
's song "Great Wall of China". The diner closed its doors for good on May 15, 2010.
- The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal ChurchGeneral Theological SeminaryThe General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church is a seminary of the Episcopal Church in the United States and is located in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York....
– Its college-like close is sometimes called "Chelsea Square", a city block of tree-shaded lawns between Ninth and Tenth Avenues and West 20th and 21st Streets. The campus is ringed by more than a dozen brick and brownstone buildings in Gothic Revival style. The oldest building on the campus dates from 1836. Most of the rest were designed as a group by architect Charles Coolidge Haight, under the guidance of the Dean, Augustus Hoffman.
- High Line – The High Line is an elevated rail line, the successor to the street-level freight line original built through Chelsea in 1847, which was the cause of numerous fatal accidents. It was elevated in the early 1930s by the New York Central RailroadNew York Central RailroadThe New York Central Railroad , known simply as the New York Central in its publicity, was a railroad operating in the Northeastern United States...
, but fell out of use. Originally slated to be torn down, it has now been converted into an elevated urban park.
- Hotel ChelseaHotel ChelseaThe Hotel Chelsea, also known as the Chelsea Hotel, or simply the Chelsea, is a historic New York City hotel and landmark, known primarily for its history of notable residents...
– Built in 1883-1885 and designed by Hubert, Pirsson & Co., it was New York's first cooperative apartment complex and was the tallest building in the city until 1902. After the theater district migrated uptown and the neighborhood became commercialized, the residential building folded and in 1905 it was turned into a hotel. The hotel attracted attention as the place where Dylan ThomasDylan ThomasDylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
had been staying when he died in 1953 at St. Vincent's HospitalSaint Vincent's Catholic Medical CenterSaint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers ' was a healthcare system, anchored by its flagship hospital, St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan, locally referred to as "St. Vincent's". St. Vincent's was founded in 1849 and closed in 2010...
in Greenwich VillageGreenwich VillageGreenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
, and for the 1978 slaying of Nancy SpungenNancy SpungenNancy Laura Spungen was the American girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious. Spungen has been the subject of controversy among music historians and fans of the Sex Pistols.-Early life:...
for which Sid ViciousSid ViciousSid Vicious was an English musician best known as the bassist of the influential punk rock group Sex Pistols...
was accused. The Hotel has been the home of numerous celebrities, including Brendan BehanBrendan BehanBrendan Francis Behan was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, and playwright who wrote in both Irish and English. He was also an Irish republican and a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army.-Early life:...
, Thomas WolfeThomas WolfeThomas Clayton Wolfe was a major American novelist of the early 20th century.Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels, plus many short stories, dramatic works and novellas. He is known for mixing highly original, poetic, rhapsodic, and impressionistic prose with autobiographical writing...
, Mark TwainMark TwainSamuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
, Tennessee WilliamsTennessee WilliamsThomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
and Virgil ThomsonVirgil ThomsonVirgil Thomson was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music...
, and the subject of books, films (Chelsea GirlsChelsea GirlsChelsea Girls is a 1966 experimental underground film directed by Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey. The film was Warhol's first major commercial success after a long line of avant-garde art films...
, 1966) and music.
- Hudson River ParkHudson River ParkHudson River Park is a waterside park on the Hudson River that extends from 59th Street south to Battery Park in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Bicycle and pedestrian paths, including the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway, span the park north to south, opening up the waterfront for...
– The entire Hudson River waterfront from 59th Street to the Battery including most of associated piers is being transformed into a joint city/state park with non-traditional uses.
- London Terrace – The apartment complex on West 23rd was one of the world's largest apartment blocks when it opened in 1930, with a swimming pool, solariumSolariumSolarium may refer to:* Similar to a Sunroom, a room built largely of glass to afford exposure to the sun. Solariums have glass roofs , unlike sunrooms...
, gymnasium, and doormen dressed as London bobbies. It was designed by Farrar and Watmough. It takes its name from the fashionable mid-19th century cottages which were once located there.
- Penn SouthPenn South__notoc__Penn South is the common name for the Mutual Redevelopment Houses, a limited-equity housing cooperative development located between Eighth and Ninth Avenues and East 23rd and 29th Streets, in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City...
– A large limited-equity housing cooperativeHousing cooperativeA housing cooperative is a legal entity—usually a corporation—that owns real estate, consisting of one or more residential buildings. Each shareholder in the legal entity is granted the right to occupy one housing unit, sometimes subject to an occupancy agreement, which is similar to a lease. ...
built by the United Housing FoundationUnited Housing FoundationThe United Housing Foundation is a real estate investment trust in New York that is best known for constructing Rochdale Village.- Purpose :...
and financed by the International Ladies' Garment Workers' UnionInternational Ladies' Garment Workers' UnionThe International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membership, and a key player in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s...
covering six city blocks, between 8thEighth Avenue (Manhattan)Eighth Avenue is a north-south avenue on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City, carrying northbound traffic. Eighth Avenue begins in the West Village neighborhood at Abingdon Square and runs north for 44 blocks through Chelsea, the Garment District, Hell's Kitchen's east end, Midtown and the...
and 9th AvenueNinth Avenue (Manhattan)Ninth Avenue / Columbus Avenue is a southbound thoroughfare on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Traffic runs downtown along its full length...
and 23rd23rd Street (Manhattan)23rd Street is a broad thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is one of few two-way streets in the gridiron of the borough. As with Manhattan's other "crosstown" streets, it is divided at Fifth Avenue, in this case at Madison Square Park, into its east and west sections. Since...
and 29th Street.
- Peter McManus CafePeter McManus CafeThe Peter McManus Café is among the oldest family-owned and operated bars in New York City. It opened in 1936 and is located at 152 Seventh Avenue on the corner of West 19th Street in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. The bar has been Zagat-rated and written about in numerous articles, and...
– This bar and restaurant on Seventh Avenue at 19th Street is among the oldest family-owned and -operated bars in the city.
- Pike's Opera HousePike's Opera HousePike's Opera House, later renamed the Grand Opera House, was a theatre in New York City on the northwest corner of 8th Avenue and 23rd Street, in Chelsea, Manhattan.His other Pike's Opera House, in Cincinnati, burned in the Great Fire of Cincinnati, in 1866. Rebuilt after the fire, and the first...
– Built in 1868, and bought the next year by James FiskJames FiskJames Fisk may refer to:* James Fisk * James Fisk , U.S. Senator from Vermont* James L. Fisk , Union Army officer and leader of four expeditions...
and Jay GouldJay GouldJason "Jay" Gould was a leading American railroad developer and speculator. He has long been vilified as an archetypal robber baron, whose successes made him the ninth richest American in history. Condé Nast Portfolio ranked Gould as the 8th worst American CEO of all time...
, who renamed it the Grand Opera House. Located on the corner of Eighth Avenue and 23rd Street, it survived until 1960 as an RKO movie theater.
- Starett-Lehigh Building – This huge full-block freight terminal and warehouse on West 26th Street between Eleventh and Twelfth Avenues was built in 1930-1931 as a joint venture of the Starett real estate firm and the Lehigh Valley RailroadLehigh Valley RailroadThe Lehigh Valley Railroad was one of a number of railroads built in the northeastern United States primarily to haul anthracite coal.It was authorized April 21, 1846 in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and incorporated September 20, 1847 as the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad...
, and was engineered so that trains could pull directly into the ground floor of the building. Designed by Cory & Cory, the industrial behemoth was so architecturally notable that it was included in the Museum of Modern ArtMuseum of Modern ArtThe Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
's 1932 "International StyleInternational style (architecture)The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
" exhibition, one of only a few American buildings to be so honored. It was designated a New York City landmark in 1966.
External links
- Chelsea Click Your Block ChelseaClickYourBlock.com is a blog site for individual residential Chelsea blocks.
- DestinationChelsea.org Local guide to Chelsea's cultural events and neighborhood establishments
- Interactive Map of Chelsea Art Galleries: chelseagallerymap.com
- Chelsea Neighborhood Profile - About.com
- CB4 The Chelsea Community Board
- GayCities New York Guide to Gay Bars & Clubs in Chelsea
- Chelsea Art Galleries
- Fine Art Gallery on West 25th
- Chelsea galleries on ArtCat
- Chelsea Neighborhood Guide
- Fischbach Gallery - A New York Contemporary Realism Art Gallery in Chelsea
- ClubFly Chelsea: Gay bars, clubs and a google map