Chelsea (Manhattan)

History

Its name comes from the native house of Clement Clarke Moore, a New Yorkean professor of the 19th century to which one allotted the paternity of the poem “a visit of Saint Nicolas” ( has Visit From St Nicholas ).

This residence surrounded by gardens, “Chelsea”, which was at the time a property of the federal state, occupied a whole block ranging between the 9 {{E}} and 10 {{E}} Avenues in the south of the 23e street. It was replaced by other constructions in the middle of the 19th century.

The charm of this still pastoral district was tarnished by the arrival of the goods trains Hudson River Railroad, whose ways were installed between the 10 {{E}} and 11 {{E}} Avenues in 1847. That caused to separate Chelsea from the shore of Hudson. Clement Moore offered the grounds of his orchard of apple trees to General Theological Seminary, which built its brown stone buildings there, of Gothic style, in the middle of a shaded campus.

In the Years 1900, the district was with Irish majority. One found there many Docker S, which discharged the cargo liners moored along the quays bordered of warehouses, beside a terminal of trucks and of a junction of the way of railroad. The film “One the Waterfront” (1954), recalls this hard world, which one also finds environment in the ballet-jazz of Richard Rodgers, “Slaughter one Tenth Avenue” (1936).

Chelsea also sheltered the beginnings of cinema industry before the First World War. Some of first films of Mary Pickford were turned on the last floors of an arsenal installed in the 26e street.

“London Terrace” was one of the most imposing buildings of dwellings at the time of its opening in 1930, having swimming pool, solarium, gymnasium, managed by caretakers carrying the same uniform as the bobbies of London.

Formerly Chelsea stopped with the 8th avenue, but in 1883, a block of apartments, which was transformed to become the “Chelsea Hotel”, extended until the 7th Avenue. It is considered now that the limit is Broadway. The district is especially residential (in its part is), offers many residences, in buildings or of the renovated warehouses. One also finds there trade of distribution (clothing), many restaurants. An important gay community saw there.

Contemporary art with Chelsea

In the middle of the years 1990, the western part (along the Hudson To rivet) district was gradually restructured. The histories garages and warehouses of Meatpacking District were gradually repurchased, to make place with galleries of Contemporary art which became the international reference uncontested in this field. Currently there exist approximately 200 galleries with Chelsea which validate really the world currents most important, as it was the case of Paris at the beginning of the 20th century.

The principal galleries located at Chelsea are:

Gallery Gagosian
Gallery Barbara Gladstone
Gallery Yvon Lambert
Gallery Lelong
Gallery Sonnabend

With important cultural places like:

the Joyce theater
The Kitchen

In 2007 the construction of the first building of Frank Gehry in New York was completed, the long IAC buildingle of the 11 {{E}} Avenue.

Anecdotes

the Chelsea hotel was in the middle of some artistic episodes and various facts. Leonard Cohen wrote in 1967 a song which bears its name, Andy Warhol made its film “Chelsea Girls there” and Jon Bon Jovi used it for the clip of its song “Midnight in Chelsea” (1997).
In 1978, whereas it resided at the Chelsea hotel, Sid Vicious (member of the punk group the Sex Pistols), was shown murder of his/her boyfriend Nancy Spungen, which caused an important media beating.

External bonds

air Visit of “Chelsea District” in Photographs
List of the galleries of Chelsea

References

WPA Guides to New York City 1939

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