Chelsea
Neighborhood Intelligence

Chelsea takes its name from the estate of Major Thomas Clarke, who bought the land in 1750 and named it after the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London. His grandson Clement Clarke Moore, author of "A Visit from St. Nicholas," gave his orchard to the Episcopal Diocese for the General Theological Seminary in 1827 and began selling lots for townhouses, setting deed covenants on what could be built. The Chelsea Historic District and its extension protect many of those blocks. The official area covered here, NYC Planning's Chelsea-Hudson Yards, runs from West 14th Street to the Hudson Yards redevelopment area in the north.

Today the neighborhood combines rowhouse blocks and housing projects with converted industrial buildings and a large concentration of art galleries. The High Line, a park on a former elevated freight railway, runs along its western side, and Chelsea Market occupies the former Nabisco factory complex. Chelsea Piers and the Hudson River waterfront lie to the west, the Hotel Chelsea stands on West 23rd Street, and the Javits Center and The Shed sit at the Hudson Yards end.