The Hotel Chelsea

The Hotel Chelsea at 222 West 23rd Street is the most mythologised residential hotel in American cultural history. Built in 1884 as one of New York's first cooperative apartment buildings, it became a long-term residence hotel in 1905 and spent the following century accumulating an extraordinary roster of occupants: Mark Twain, Dylan Thomas, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac (who wrote On the Road here), and Sid Vicious, whose girlfriend Nancy Spungen was found stabbed to death in their room in 1978. Leonard Cohen wrote 'Chelsea Hotel #2' about an encounter with Janis Joplin in its corridors.

For musicians, the Chelsea was where the rock world overlapped with the literary and art worlds that surrounded Warhol and the Factory scene. Bob Dylan stayed here. Jimi Hendrix stayed here. Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe lived here for years, scraping together rent. The hotel's management accepted work in lieu of rent, meaning the lobby and corridors accumulated an extraordinary collection of art donated by impoverished guests over the decades.

The Chelsea closed for renovation in 2011 and reopened in stages from 2022 onward as a boutique hotel under new ownership. The renovation has been controversial among those who valued its eccentric, accommodating character. Many of the original artworks remain in the building. The Hotel Chelsea Preservation group has worked to ensure the cultural significance of the building is maintained through the redevelopment.