Sherill Tippins, the author of a forthcoming book on the history of the Hotel Chelsea, has been spending her time visiting the archives of famous former residents. Among other interesting artifacts, she has been known to find old Hotel Chelsea rent receipts. Recently she sent us a list of what apartments rented for at the Chelsea when it was first built (late 1800s), along with the conversion rate in today’s dollars:
A 3 to 4 room suite cost about $50-$100 per month, equaling about $1,000 to $2,000 in today's dollars.
An artist's duplex rented for about $100 per month, i.e., $2,000 today.
You could get one of the rambling, 10-12 room apartments for $167 to $250 per month, which translates to $3,000 to $5,000.
Tippins goes on to say, “These prices were considered outrageous, but the Chelsea was built in the midst of a real estate boom and everyone was worried that housing prices were pushing out the middle class. (Not to mention the artists.) Aside from the fact that the apartments were new then--at the time of the prices I gave you--those rents were also a much smaller part of the renters' income, I think. William Dean Howells' income was about $850 per month [his salary equaled about $200,000 per year today], so a $250 apartment would have cost less than a third of his monthly nut."
The writer/editor William Dean Howells wrote to his father, after he rented a place at the Chelsea, "I watch my money flow as a stuck pig its life-stream. It's horrible to spend so much but I seem bound to it hand and foot."
William Dean Howells: now there is a writer who you don’t typically associate with the Chelsea. After all, he's not listed on the hotel’s authoritative website. We were thrilled to learn of this connection, and mentioned it to one of our neighbors in passing, and he replied, “Too bad they don’t read him anymore.” They’ll read him again now that they know he lived at the Chelsea!
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