New York – Around Town : Chelsea and Herald Square (part 1)

by

A neighborhood that has seen a
great deal of recent change, Chelsea was a quiet enclave of
19th-century brownstones that never made it as a fashionable address.
Now it is a hub for gay New Yorkers and center for the city’s
avant-garde art galleries and nightclubs. Buildings along 6th Avenue are
now occupied by superstores and discount outlets, and to the west,
Chelsea Piers has transformed the waterfront. Uptown, the Garment
District begins around 27th Street, with Herald Square and Macy’s at the
heart of the city’s busiest shopping area.


The World’s Largest Store

Macy’s is more than a store to most New Yorkers.
It is a major part of the city, sponsoring the famous Thanksgiving Day
Parade, the city’s Fourth of July fireworks and everything from an
annual spring flower show filling the main floor, to Tap-O-Mania, when
thousands of tap dancers converge on Herald Square.






Sights

  1. 6th Avenue Shopping

    This
    was once a popular district known as “Fashion Row”. The 1876 cast-iron
    façade of the Hugh O’Neill Dry Goods Store at Nos. 655–71 exemplifies
    the era, when the arrival of the 6th Avenue elevated line provided easy
    access to the area. As Manhattan’s commercial center moved northward,
    these cast-iron palaces were left deserted until the 1990s, when they
    found new life as bargain fashion outlets and superstores.

    • 6th Ave, 18th to 23rd Sts

  2. West 25th Street Market and Antiques Garage

    On
    weekends, year-round, an empty parking lot becomes one of the city’s
    most popular outdoor markets. A tradition for more than 30 years, some
    100 vendors, from Maine to Maryland, set up booths selling clothing,
    silver, jewelry, furniture, art, and “junktiques” from old tools to
    vintage eyeglasses. Many prize antiques can be discovered at The
    Antiques Garage, an indoor market just around the corner at 112 West
    25th Street, and at The Showplace, 40 West 25th Street, with over 60
    dealers on three floors.

    • West 25th St between Broadway and 7th Ave

    • Open sunrise to sunset

    • Admission charge

  3. Flower District

    Here,
    at the heart of the city’s wholesale flower district, you can hardly
    see the sidewalk for the masses of greenery, shrubs, and flowers.
    Manhattan’s largest concentration of shops selling house plants, trees,
    blooming plants, and all manner of flowers, fresh, dried, and artificial
    can be found here; if you can’t find what you want, it probably doesn’t
    exist. The district extends along 6th Avenue roughly from 25th to 30th
    streets.

    • 6th Ave at 27th St




    The Flower District

  4. Chelsea Hotel

    Seedy
    it is, yet there’s a definite mystique to this 1884 building bedecked
    with wrought-iron balconies. Once a fancy apartment, it became a hotel
    favored by musicians, artists, and writers. Former guests, commemorated
    on brass plaques outside, include Tennessee Williams, Mark Twain, Jack
    Kerouac, and Brendan Behan. Dylan Thomas spent his last years here.
    Notoriously, it was also the place where punk rocker Sid Vicious killed
    his girlfriend Nancy Spungen in 1978. Step into the lobby and take a
    look at the wild artwork. The bar downstairs is now called the Star
    Lounge.

    • 222 West 23rd St, between 7th & 8th Aves




    Chelsea Hotel, cast-iron stairwell

  5. Chelsea Historic District

    Clement Moore, author of A Visit from St. Nicholas,
    developed this land in the 1830s. The finest of the town houses built
    here are the seven known as “Cushman Row,” Nos. 406–18 West 20th Street,
    which are among the city’s best examples of Greek Revival architecture.
    Houses at Nos. 446–50 West 20th are in the Italianate style, for which
    Chelsea is also known.

    • Between 9th & 10th Aves, 20th & 21st Sts




    “Cushman Row”, Chelsea Historic District

  6. General Theological Seminary

    America’s
    oldest Episcopal seminary was founded in 1819. This campus was built
    around two quadrangles in the 1830s, on a site donated by Clement Moore,
    who taught at the seminary. The main building, added in 1960, includes a
    library with the largest collection of Latin Bibles in the world. There
    are lovely inner gardens (9th Avenue entrance).

    • 20th to 21st Sts

    • Open 10am–3pm Mon–Sat

    • Free

  7. Chelsea Piers

    Four
    neglected piers have been turned into a 30-acre sports and recreation
    complex, and Manhattan’s largest venue for film and TV production.
    Sports facilities include ice skating, inline skating and skateboarding,
    batting cages, playing fields, a basketball court, bowling alley, golf
    driving ranges, and a marina offering harbor cruises and sailing
    instruction. Pier Park is a place to relax with a water view.

    • 23rd St at the Hudson River

    • Open 6:30am–11pm Oct–Mar (to midnight Apr–Sep)

    • Admission charge


    • www.chelseapiers.com




    Chelsea Piers



    Chelsea Piers

  8. Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.)

    Founded
    in 1944 and now a branch of the State University of New York, the
    Fashion Institute of Technology is a prestigious school teaching art,
    fashion design, and marketing, and boasts famous alumni, including
    Calvin Klein, Norma Kamali, and David Chu. Students benefit from
    internships with New York’s leading stores and designers. Of greatest
    interest to the public is the gallery, which has changing exhibits,
    often from their clothing and textile collections.

    • 7th Ave at West 27th St

    • Museum open noon–8pm Tue-Fri, 10am–5pm Sat

    • Free

  9. Herald Square

    The
    center of a rowdy theater district known as the Tenderloin in the 1870s
    and 80s, until it was reformed. The Manhattan Opera House was razed in
    1901 to make way for Macy’s, and other stores soon followed. The clock
    on the island where Broadway meets 6th Avenue is all that is left of the
    building that was occupied by the New York Herald until 1921.

    • Broadway at 6th Ave




    Ornamental clock, Herald Square

  10. Macy’s

    Former
    whaler R. H. Macy founded the store in 1858 on 6th Avenue and 14th
    Street; the red star logo was from his tattoo, a souvenir of sailing
    days. Innovations included pricing goods a few cents below a full dollar
    and offering a money-back guarantee. The store was sold in 1888 and
    moved to the present building.




    Macy’s façade