Chelsea Hotel National Register Amendment

Based on his prior web entries written for the NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project, Ethan prepared an amendment to the Chelsea Hotel's National Register nomination, expanding criterion A to add Social History/LGBT as an area of significance.

2024 - present (under review by NPS)

The iconic Chelsea Hotel, at 222 West 23rd Street in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 for its national significance in the areas of architecture and literature. As was typical of the time, the nomination was incredibly brief, highlighting the Chelsea’s “surviv[al] as one of the great late nineteenth century apartment houses in New York” and minimally discussing the outputs of a small selection of the many creatives associated with the hotel since its opening in 1884.

This additional documentation highlights the Chelsea’s role as a hub of creative activity and counterculture where a tolerant atmosphere enabled many prominent LGBTQ figures to live openly, establish personal and professional networks, and flourish creatively, thus solidifying the hotel’s status as an internationally renowned icon of New York's literary, artistic, and musical heritage. It documents some of the influential social and professional circles that LGBTQ people formed in the twentieth century, as well as the disproportionate involvement and impact of LGBTQ people in the history and culture of New York and the US.

To understand why the Chelsea became a creative nexus where queer artistic exploration could flourish, the amendment examines the Chelsea's architecture and historical development, including its origins as an early cooperative apartment building with roots in the communitarian socialist ideas of Charles Fourier, its conversion into a residential hotel as the surrounding neighborhood evolved into a working-class immigrant district, and Stanley Bard's decades-long management, characterized by a laissez-faire approach and deep appreciation for the arts.

The amendment includes a biographical directory of over 100 notable LGBTQ+ individuals who resided or stayed at the Chelsea during the period of significance: