Neighborhood Guide

Chelsea


Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the Manhattan borough of New York City. It is located to the south of Hell's Kitchen and the Garment District, and north of Greenwich Village, and the Meatpacking District that centers on West 14th Street. The neighborhood is part of Manhattan Community Board 4 and Manhattan Community Board 5. An area in the neighborhood is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Chelsea Historic District. Chelsea is sometimes referred to along with Hell's Kitchen as Manhattan West."Chelsea" stood surrounded by its gardens on a full block between Ninth and Tenth Avenues south of 23rd Street until it was replaced by high quality row houses in the mid-19th century. The former rural charm of the neighborhood was tarnished by the freight railroad right-of-way of the Hudson River Railroad, which laid its tracks up Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in 1847 and separated Chelsea from the Hudson River waterfront. Clement Clarke Moore gave the land of his apple orchard for the General Theological Seminary, which built its brownstone Gothic tree-shaded campus south of "Chelsea." In Chelsea there are three Public schools: Public School 11, also known as the William T Harris school, or PS 11 to its students and Intermediate School 70, also known as O'Henry, IS 70, and the Liberty High School For Newcomers. Chelsea is home to the Fashion Institute of Technology, a specialized SUNY unit which serves as a talent wellspring for the city's fashion and design industries. The School of Visual Arts, The High School of Fashion Industries and Touro College also have a presence in the design fields. The neighborhood is also home to The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church, a graduate institution for the training of Christian leaders and the oldest seminary in the Anglican Communion. The Center for Jewish History, a consortium of several national research organizations, is a unified library, exhibition, conference, lecture and performance venue.