By the mid-1970s when this photo was taken, Uptown’s Chelsea Hotel had been up, down and was headed up again. Private investors renovated the building in the late sixties. They turned it into low income housing for seniors that provided a library, entertainment, and three meals a day. The idea was backed by Chicago Housing Authority who used Chelsea House as a testing ground for their “experimental” plan to rent public housing from private providers. The senior paid part of the rent and the government subsidized the rest. It was an idea that would catch on like wildfire throughout the country within a few years. The property was well maintained (notice the painting supplies on the sidewalk at the right) well into the early Eighties. Sadly, new owners in the Eighties let the property decline before the Jesus People took it over.
