222 W 23rd St · W 23rd St, 7th–8th Ave

Hotel Chelsea

Latest from the feed3 days ago

Scaffolding. Sidewalk shed went up along 23rd St this morning. Entrance is still open.

Photo by @w23rd

Opened in 1884 as an experimental cooperative “home club”, with duplexes and rooftop artist studios, and the tallest apartment house in New York. When the co-op failed it became a hotel, was carved into hundreds of small rooms, and filled with writers, musicians and painters who often paid in art as much as rent.

Architect: Hubert, Pirsson & Co.; Philip Hubert and James Pirsson championed cooperative “home clubs”, where artists and middle-class residents pooled resources. Hubert took the top-floor penthouse for himself.
Styles: Queen Anne & Victorian Gothic; Picturesque and deliberately uneven: steep gables, tall chimneys and a roofline that refuses to line up. See the architectural details below.
Built: 1883–1885; 141yrsAge
175ft53 m tall
12Stories; New York’s tallest residential building when completed, before elevators made height ordinary.
Use: Hotel & historic residences; A pioneering co-op until 1905, then an apartment hotel. Today about 155 hotel rooms sit alongside legacy long-term residents.

Good to know

Protected: NYC Landmark 1966 · National Register 1977; Exterior changes need Landmarks Preservation Commission approval. National listing unlocks restoration tax credits.
Access: Lobby, bars & restaurants open to all; Upper floors are for hotel guests and long-term residents only.
Restored: 2011–2022; A decade-long renovation repaired the iron balconies and grand stair and converted SRO rooms into hotel suites.
Owned: Chelsea Hotel Owner LLC; Run by hoteliers Sean MacPherson, Ira Drukier and Richard Born since the 2022 reopening.

Architectural details

What to look for, and what it tells you about when, how and for whom this building was made. Tap a number.

History

1869–1883Before the Chelsea

1883–1885Co-op opens

1905Becomes a hotel

1930s–1950sDivided up

1966Landmarked

2011–2022Restored

NextNothing planned

Fire-insurance map of the block on West 23rd Street

1869–1883

Tammany land and an empty lot

The land was tied to James Ingersoll and other Tammany Hall operatives. Seven-story row buildings called the Excelsior Buildings went up nearby in 1869–1871, caught up in the “Armory Frauds” scandals. By the late 1870s the site was a cleared, vacant lot between two churches.

What changed

Excelsior Buildings rise on part of the stretch (1869–1871)
Site cleared to a vacant lot by the late 1870s
Westminster Presbyterian Church stands to the east

Inside

A cutaway from roof to cellar. Every place you can walk into today, and where to find it.

SectionRoof to cellar

Rooftop
Behind the gables
- Spa & solariumSpaA glass-and-brick penthouse addition hidden behind the Victorian gables.hotelchelsea.com (opens in a new tab)
Floors 2–11
Rooms & residences
About 155 hotel rooms and legacy long-term residents. Private.
Ground floor
Street & lobby
23rd StreetStreet level
Basement
Below the street
- TerukoSushi barNamed for resident artist Teruko Yokoi. Its backbar was salvaged from Tokyo’s Hotel Okura.terukonyc.com (opens in a new tab)

How it was built

Structure: Load-bearing masonry; Walls up to 3–4 ft thick at the base. Steel frames were only just arriving; this is one of the last great tall buildings without one.
Original units: 90–100 apartments; From 800 to 3,000 sq ft, including some of the city’s first duplexes and top-floor artist studios.
Circulation: One grand stair; An iron and marble staircase winds all 12 floors to a roof lantern, still the building’s social spine.