Chelsea, Manhattan

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Elegant building along 23rd street.

Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, USA. It is located to the south of Hell's Kitchen and the Garment District, north of Greenwich Village, and north to northeast of the Meatpacking District that centers on West 14th Street. The neighborhood is part of Manhattan Community Board 4.

1 History
2 Culture
3 Landmarks
4 Trivia
5 External links
6 References
7 Sources

[edit] History

Chelsea takes its name from the Federal-style house of the Moore family, named after the manor of Chelsea, which was home to Sir Thomas More. The house was the birthplace of Clement Clarke Moore, who is more often credited with "A Visit From St. Nicholas"— which he may have authored— than with the first Greek and Hebrew lexicons printed in the United States, which he certainly authored.

"Chelsea" stood surrounded by its gardens on a full block between Ninth and Tenth Avenues south of 23rd Street until it was replaced by high quality row houses in the mid-19th century. The former rural charm of the neighborhood was tarnished by the freight railroad right-of-way of the Hudson River Railroad, which laid its tracks up Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in 1847 and separated Chelsea from the Hudson River waterfront. Clement Clarke Moore gave the land of his apple orchard for the General Theological Seminary, which built its brownstone Gothic tree-shaded campus south of "Chelsea."

By 1900, the neighborhood was solidly Irish and housed the longshoremen who unloaded freighters at warehouse piers that lined the waterfront and the truck terminals integrated with the raised freight railroad spur. The film On the Waterfront (1954) recreates this tough world, dramatized in Richard Rodgers' 1936 jazz ballet Slaughter on Tenth 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 on West 26th Street.

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.

Traditionally, Chelsea was bounded by Eighth Avenue, but in 1883 the apartment block, soon transformed to Hotel Chelsea helped extend it past Seventh Avenue and now it runs as far east as Broadway. The neighborhood is primarily residential with a mix of tenements, apartment blocks and rehabilitated warehousing, and its many businesses reflect that: ethnic restaurants, delis and clothing boutiques are plentiful. Tekserve, the vast computer repair shop that strongly influenced Apple's Retail Store and Genius Bar concept, serves nearby Silicon Alley and the area's large creative community. Chelsea has a large gay population, stereotyped as gym-toned "Chelsea boys." Since the mid-1990s, Chelsea has become a center of the New York art scene, as an increasing number of art galleries have moved there from SoHo.

[edit] Culture

Chelsea has recently become a melting pot of many cultures. Above 23rd Street, by the Hudson River, most of Chelsea is still industrialized, and the forgotten High Line follows the river all through Chelsea. Eighth Avenue is a center for gay culture, and from 20th to 22nd street between Ninth and Tenth avenue, historic brownstones built over a hundred years ago are still being used. From 16th Street to 27th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues, there are more than 200 art galleries that are home to modern art from upcoming artists and respected artists as well, such as the Gagosian Gallery, Zach Feuer Gallery, Barbara Gladsone Gallery, Andrea Rosen Gallery and David Zwirner Gallery. Along with the art galleries, Chelsea is also home to the somewhat well known Graffiti Research Lab. There are many new developments in Chelsea, including a new building built by Frank Gehry. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 (District #77000954).

[edit] Landmarks

Chelsea Piers - 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 Carpathia brought survivors to Pier 54 in the complex. The northern piers are now part of an entertainment and sports complex operated by George W. Bush fraternity brother Roland W. Betts.
Hotel Chelsea - The hotel attracted attention to the neighborhood with its involvement in the death of Dylan Thomas in 1953 and, also, the slaying of Nancy Spungen by Sid Vicious in 1978. The Hotel has been the home of numerous celebrities and the subject of books, films (Chelsea Girls, 1966) and music.
Hudson River Park - The entire Hudson River waterfront from 59th Street to the Battery including most of associated piers are now a combination state and city park and are undergoing a massive renovation.
High Line - The High Line is an elevated rail line that was once used to handle freight from the waterfront. Originally slated to be torn down because it created an industrial atmosphere in the neighborhood it is now being converted into an elevated park.
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, solarium, gymnasium, and doormen dressed as London bobbies.
Penn South - A large limited-equity housing cooperative built by the United Housing Foundation and financed by the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union covering six city blocks, between 8th and 9th Avenue and 23rdh and 29th Street.

[edit] Trivia

The neighborhood north of Chelsea is called Clinton. The two neighborhoods are often lumped together as "Manhattan West" and a longstanding weekly newspaper is called the "Chelsea Clinton News." First daughter Chelsea Clinton actually lives in the neighborhood -- a fact that was highlighted in the November 2006 Midterm election when she ran into problems at her 20th Street polling station when it was discovered that during a voting snafu the proper books containing her name had not been delivered to her station. She was allowed to vote via a paper ballot.^[1]