Do you believe in reincarnation? You do if you’re in real estate. The Chelsea Hotel has had four or five lives. This picture was taken during its third or fourth. At 920 Wilson, just west of Hazel, the building began life as a swank apartment hotel. It then fell into disrepair and turned into low income housing. In the late 1960s, an investor fixed it up and turned it into a retirement home for seniors with medical disabilities. It seemed strangely out of place for Uptown in that era. The uniformed doorman was definitely a throwback to a bygone era. While he would find people cabs, I think his real job was to scare off teenagers with spray paint.
