Key Takeaways
The staging of astalled renovation projecthas hidden the façade of the Hotel Chelsea in Manhattan for years now . But no amount of rubble could obscure the hotel ’s lustrous account – because " the Chelsea , " as it ’s often called , has been a home to a bona fide cyclopedia of ethnical icons ..
Mark Twain , Stanley Kubrick , Arthur Miller , Jack Kerouac , Bob Dylan , Leonard Cohen , Nico , Patti Smith , Sam Shepard , Mitch Hedberg , Charles R. Jackson , and Dennis Hopper , among many others , all stayed there at one meter or another . Some for a little time , others for years . Robert Mapplethorpe , Henri Cartier - Bresson , Dee Dee Ramone – the list of stars go on and on .
Of the Chelsea , Patti Smith wrote in her memoir " Just Kids , " " I loved this home , its shabby elegance , and the story it held so possessively . "
But what is it about thishotel – of all the hotel in New York City – that pass on it so much gravitational pull for artists of all form ?
Turns out , it was designed for on the dot this role .
" It was initially work up by Philip Hubert as an low-priced artist ’s co - surgical ( though it was promptly taken over by upper and middle - class New Yorkers ) and only later reopen as a hotel , " email Nicolaia Rips , anauthor who wroteabout her experiences of growing up in the hotel in the 2000s . " If you conceive that you imbue the things you create with purpose , which I do , then it is very simple : fine art is in the hotel ’s foundation , it is as essential to the hotel as the brick and howitzer . "
It wasHubert , a founder of the architectural house of Hubert , Pirsson & Company , who bring the Chelsea to life in the mid-1880s . He was an avid follower ofCharles Fourier , a French philosopher who imagined various form of utopian socialism . More specifically , Fourier was a steadfast proponent of so - called " designed communities , " in which teamwork and share social values are top priority .
In plan and build the Hotel Chelsea , Hubert wanted just that – a place where people from wide-ranging backgrounds and lifestyles would feel secure in share their life in the spirit of collaboration .
" To my knowledge , it ’s the largest and longest - live artists ' community in the history of the world , " saysSherill Tippins , author of , " Inside the Dream Palace : The Life and Times of New York ’s Legendary Chelsea Hotel . "
This visual sense was a grand winner , as evidenced by the incredible number and salmagundi of the great unwashed who ’ve called the Chelsea household at one time or another . And although the hotel is notable for its celebrities , veritable types live there , too .
" The mix of types of residents offer fodder for art – the doddering honest-to-goodness gentlewoman with their shocking stories from their pasts , the lonely heiresses who come to take their lives there , the mellow - fashion models struggling to supervise their professional life , the delicatessen actor and hack driver and drug trader – all mingling , conversing , and sharing their lives in the lobby and elevators , in the roof gardens and at El Quijote next door , " read Tippins . " Together , they comprise a human tapestry mirrored in painting , songs , dance , compositions , sculpture , photographs , and storey and novel that have been create there . "
You may wonder how artists of vary success – who are not always known for timely paycheck – make do to score room at a famous hotel in downtown New York City .
Tippins explains that historically , for many , the hotel was advisedly made low-priced because theBard family , who deal the hotel from the 1930s through early 2000s , recognized the note value of have well - known visitor or residents in the hotel . The Bards were willing to discount rent ( or even forego rent or consent artworks in lieu of Johnny Cash ) to help artist make their style .
" During these years , the hotel raise increasingly race - down , which was fine with most resident since that meant the economic rent could not be leaven too drastically , either – the golden deal - off that anyone who ’s lived in economic rent - steady housing in NYC understands , " says Tippins .
The Chelsea Stands on Art, Legends and Lore
But no matter the hardships , the Chelsea will always be a source of caption and lore .
" It ’s a position of contradictions , where everyone is having a wild-eyed adventure and windmills are in fact heavyweight , " say Nicolaia Rips . " It ’s a place of item-by-item instability yet community . It ’s ephemeral and rarified yet vitiated . I would say it ’s the dear place I ’ve ever been , and its residents are the best people I ’ve ever cope with . "
It ’s where Leonard Cohen and Janis Joplin carry on affair that weave its way into two of Cohen ’s songs ( " Chelsea Hotel No . 2 " is , in fact , an ode to Joplin ) . And it ’s the place that Sid Vicious , of the Sex Pistols , was charge with stabbing his lady friend Nancy Spungen to death in their room in 1978 ( he died from a drug overdose while on bail bond in 1979 ) .
Brighter moment shined here , too . It ’s where Arthur C. Clarke wrote " 2001 : A Space Odyssey . " Allen Ginsburg , Tennessee Williams , Thomas Wolfe , Chick Corea , Tom Waits and Rufus Wainwright all barter and traded ideas on life and prowess within these wall . Joni Mitchell ’s " Chelsea Morning " was written about the lieu .
Ray Mock , who co - wrote the book , " Hotel Chelsea : Living in the Last Bohemian Haven , " articulate in an email consultation that the hotel will always be known for its usurious celebrities .
" But to me one of the most of import discoveries in act upon on our book was that it was the swell bit of not - so - famous artists , journeyman , intellectuals and dreamers who really keep the spirit of the stead alive , toiling out at their life ’s work for years or decades within the edifice ’s slurred walls and forming a tightly entwine community , " he says . " Some of them are still there and continue , each in their own way , to maintain the Chelsea ’s legacy . "
It ’s no wonder , then , why it ’s so beloved , by so many , and why people from around the world come up to simply support on the sidewalks outside and lay eyes on its lowly magnificence .
" No matter how run - down it gets , no matter how disorderly its management , no matter who many times the rent is hiked up , artists ca n’t get enough of life story lived in community there , " says Tippins . " Even now , with the edifice keep out down and half - hidden by scaffolding , and only 50 or so apartments occupied , tourer arrive every twenty-four hour period to marvel at the bronze memorial tablet posted alongside its entrance commemorating the life sentence of artists who lived there , and to stargaze that someday they might survive creatively at the Chelsea , too . "
HowStuffWorks may earn a small-scale delegation from affiliate links in this clause .
FAQs
The Bard family , who managed the hotel , recognized the value of have well - known visitors or resident and were uncoerced to brush aside rent or accept artworks in lieu of cash to help artists make their way .
The Chelsea Hotel has reflected the state of the larger world through various periods , such as the Great Depression , the emergent drug culture of the 1960s and 70 , and more lately , financially fuel real estate transactions .
