Should you need any proof that Manhattan in the 21st century is a very different place from the artist-friendly (and, OK, often unsafe) urban jungle that welcomed Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe in the 1970s, look no further than the fate of the legendary Hotel Chelsea. The place where Dylan Thomas and Nancy Spungen died, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen wrote some of their most famous songs, and the Beats made their unofficial headquarters was put up for sale last fall. And now that it’s been bought by Joseph Chetrit, “the most mysterious big shot in New York real estate,” it seems the hotel and residence is slowly losing its history.
Gothamist has posted a pair of photos by Hotel Chelsea resident and author Ed Hamilton, who also blogs about the hotel, and they’re pretty freaking depressing. According to Hamilton, the images below show “the remains of American writer Thomas Wolfe’s last residence in New York City. Where he worked on You Can’t Go Home Again, in 1938.” Hamilton tells Gothamist that the gutted space is part of the new owner’s plan to get rid of as many residents as possible — ostensibly so he can renovate the spaces and, in the process, render them virtually unrecognizable.
Photo credit: Ed Hamilton
Photo credit: Ed Hamilton
Comments (5)
Funny a very big part of the reason why the hotel was sold to mr Chetrit in the 1th place was because of Mr Hamilton and his Gang of cyberbullys going after the previous owners family with their hateful toxic Blog he is either really dumb or just a really mean spirited jack ass THANK YOU Mr Hamilton I hope you get what you wanted for XMAS
I really hope that the essence of the place can be maintained even if a degree of gutting has to happen first…leave some spirit or you have lost a treasure …this sort of place would really be preserved for future generations in UK.
That is just awful. In London, we visited Samuel Johnson’s house. It survived a couple of centuries and some serious bombing during the blitz. And the city keeps it preserved. It is reprehensible that NYC is just letting someone destroy a building where so much of the 20th century’s most important art was created. So sad.
Tears,
N.
it is good history of Hotel Chelsea.thanks for sharing the infromation of hotel chelsea..
Ihm in Chandigarh
I think this is horrendous and utterly disgusting! This is a piece of NYC history! Much famous art was made here, and the spirit of the people who inhabited it as well! Why would you touch a piece of history like this and turn it into a modern monstronsity?? These people come in and they have no respect other than for the almighty dollar and it’s going to blow up in their faces. I live in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and they are doing this crap all throughout the neighborhood to the point where it is barely recognizable anymore. The result is that the folks that I grew up with cannot afford to live here anymore and the new people moving in living off of mommy’s and daddy’s dime are bringing in droves of bed bugs, filth and crime! NYC should step in and do something about this. It’s unreal the crime that is going on inside this hotel.
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