Chelsea Hotel

The Hotel Chelsea, located at 222 West 23rd Street, in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood, is one of the city’s most storied artists’ haunts and an unsurprising residence (however temporary) for a maverick journalist like Jackson Elias. Curious Keepers might be interested to learn a bit more about the opening location for the campaign. Started in 1883 and completed in 1884 the building was originally intended to be a co-operative apartment complex. At twelve-stories high the red brick building was the tallest building in New York at the time and would remain so until 1899. In that period the Chelsea neighborhood was the heart of New York’s theatrical scene, and the building was popular with creative types. Unfortunately, the rise of Broadway as a theatrical hub contributed to financial problems that bankrupted the original co-operative. This caused the property to be converted to a hotel in 1905, which it has remained ever since. Often many of the rooms have been held by the same guest for long periods of time, in some cases for several years. In the decades since its construction, many luminaries have spent time at the Chelsea—directors Stanley Kubrick and Miloš Forman; writers including Mark Twain, Arthur C. Clarke,William S. Burroughs, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean Paul Sartre, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, and Jack Kerouac; actors such as Lillie Langtree, Dennis Hopper, and Uma Thurman; and a range of musicians including Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen,Tom Waits, and Dee Dee Ramone, several of whom wrote songs about the hotel.

Plot Relevance
Jackson Elias was murdered in Room 410, shortly after calling the investigators to meet him there.