If walls could talk, the rooms at the Chelsea Hotel would never shut up.
It opened in 1884 as an 80-unit luxury co-op called the Chelsea Association Building, but around the turn of the century it morphed a rental outfit, with the "hotel" part coming later. Still, despite its name, the iconic 12-story Victorian Gothic structure at 222 West 23rd Street in Manhattan has always been more of a residence for eclectic souls to hang their hats than a check-in-for-a-week-with-the-kids destination.
Deemed a historic New York landmark in 1966, the Chelsea has seen everyone from Mark Twain to Titanic survivors to the Beat poets to Ethan Hawke pass through its doors. An incalculable amount of art has been produced under its roof, and the place itself has inspired movies, books and music, name-checked in songs across multiple decades by the likes of Bob Dylan and Phoebe Bridgers and serving as a watering hole for creative types from all over the world.
Dreaming Walls, a new documentary directed by Amélie van Elmbt and Maya Duverdier, delves into the recently renovated building's lofty origins, bohemian evolution and persistently unique aura.
In a time in which so much is knocked down to make way for something else, the Chelsea remains a still-standing testament to what was, even though under new management the notoriously drug-fueled merriment has long since subsided and the remaining long-term residents are most likely the last of their kind as the long arc of real estate bends toward boutique hotels.
While Dreaming Walls, which opens in limited theatrical release July 8, probes the architectural and spiritual bones of the Chelsea Hotel (or, as the highbrow-minded have preferred to call it, the Hotel Chelsea), it would take more than 80 minutes to encompass all the important, inspiring, exciting, unfortunate, wild, tragic and just plain weird stuff that's happened in the building over the course of 138 years.
So here's some of it, in no particular order:
Dreaming Walls is now in theaters and on VOD.