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Chelsea Hotel

Chelsea Hotel doors comprise Guernsey’s sale April 12

Tom Hoepf
Tom Hoepf
Chelsea Hotel
Mark Twain (inset) stayed at the Chelsea Hotel in the late 1880s before he bought a home on lower Fifth Avenue. He considered the hotel an ‘artistic’ environment.’ The door measures approximately 77 x 31 ½ in. Guernsey’s image

NEW YORK – On April 12, Guernsey’s will be conducting an unprecedented auction of 55 original doors to residences within the fabled Chelsea Hotel. Absentee and Internet live bidding is available through LiveAuctioneers.

 For more than a century, the Chelsea attracted the most fascinating, accomplished individuals who often found themselves “living on the edge” at the fabled residential hotel. Now undergoing an extensive face-lift, the hotel may never again be the place to be seen or the setting for the wildest affairs, but memories of the Chelsea will live on in popular culture.

How ironic it is that a once-homeless man, in search of a roof overhead, ended up with the Chelsea doors which, though well worn, whitewashed and plain, were the portals to the rooms of famed writers, artists, musicians and trendsetters. That once homeless man is the consignor of the doors of such great musicians as Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan, important authors including Jack Kerouac, Thomas Wolfe, Tennessee Williams and Mark Twain, trail-blazing artists Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol, civil rights activist W.E.B. DuBois, and actor Humphrey Bogart.

Through exhaustive research, roughly half of these large wooden doors can be traced to the iconic individuals who lived behind them. And although the research is continuing, it is expected that some doors can only be confirmed to be from the hotel without a more precise personal connection.

Chelsea Hotel
Jim Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971), front man of the Doors, stayed at the Chelsea Hotel on multiple occasions and lived there for a time. The door measures approximately 77 x 31 ½ in. Guernsey’s image

A substantial portion of the proceeds from the unique event will support City Harvest, the non-profit organization that pioneered food rescue in 1982. This year, City Harvest will rescue 59 million pounds of nutritious food and deliver it to 500 community food programs across New York City, helping to feed the nearly 1.3 million New Yorkers facing hunger.

These historic doors will be on display at the Ricco/Maresca Gallery, 529 W. 20th St., in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood, from April 5 until the auction on the evening of April 12. The auction will take place at the gallery.

For details, contact Guernsey’s at 212-794-2280.

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Chelsea Hotel