Chelsea Hotel's Haunted History
The Chelsea Hotel, New York is reguarded as being in the top ten of most haunted hotels in the world. It was built in 1883, when the area was the center of the theater district. Maybe that is why it always seemed to attract talented, yet troubled artists. It was first divided into private apartments. The owners of the complex filed bankruptcy in 1905 and the building was sold and soon afterward it became the Hotel that it is today. In the early nineteenth century, the Chelsea had a tendency to attract low income clientele, as well as, those who conducted illegal businesses within its sound proof walls.
By the 1950's, the Chelsea started attracting artistic types and over the years since, it has given creativity to such names as Eugene O'Neil, Thomas Wolfe, and Arthur C. Clarke (who wrote 2001: A Space Oddyssey while in residence). Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan Jack Kerouac, Bob Dylan, Frank Zappa, Andy Warhol, Jimi Hendrix and Dylan Thomas. Poet Dylan Thomas actually died at the Chelsea in room 206 in 1953 after going on a drinking binge that led to alcohol poisoning. Dylan's last words are said to have been, "I've had eighteen straight whiskeys, and I think that's a record!
Author Charles R. Jackson ("The Lost Weekend") committed suicide in his Chelsea room in 1968. Charles James, often referred to as America' first couturier, died in his room in 1978, after living there for fourteen years. Another death to take place in the building was in 1978 in room 100. Former musician for the Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious, and his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, were living at the hotel after Sid's career took a plunge. After a drug binge, Nancy was found stabbed to death on October 12, 1978. Sid had no idea if he did it or if someone broke in and killed Nancy. Before he could stand trial, Sid overdosed on heroin, an injection some believe his mother gave him because he told her he couldn't stand going back to jail.
Over the last century, the Chelsea has seen its share of drugs, alcohol, immoral behavior, death and despair. All of these events have seemed to have left their mark on the hotels very walls, causing many to claim that the hotel is haunted.
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