10TH AVENUE CHELSEA

by Kevin Walsh

On a warmish day in mid-April I decided to take a walk in the Chelsea area near the High Line, which as you know is the 1934 elevated freight railroad that ended service in 1980 and lay unused until a team of developers, with the support of the NY City Council, turned it into the High Line Elevated Park. Officially dubbed the West Side Freight Railroad, it acquired the name “High Line” and the term seeped through osmosis into common parlance. Forgotten NY has covered it extensively since the first piece between Gansevoort and 20th Streets opened in 2009; it has been added to ever since, as formerly closed pieces were developed and opened to the public. Additionally, it has acquired a connection to the public areas of Hudson Yards, the mini-city built between 30th and 34th Streets west of 10th Avenue.

My goal today wasn’t to walk the High Line completely, as it has gotten less fun since 2009. You used to be able to see in all directions for miles, but now the streets near it have been overstuffed with high-rise, high-concept buildings that block the views, which were the best aspect of the park for me. So, I decided to walk 10th Avenue instead. I have never thought of it before, but I thought the contrast of the elevated structure built in 1934 structure against brand new construction would be fascinating, to use Mr. Spock’s favorite word. See if you agree.

Health issues permitting, I can return to longform posts (but not too long) in the short term, as bad sales forced layoffs from Marquis Who’s Who, for whom I worked for 4 years between 2021 and 2025. The extra time before I can find replacement work to do permits me to work on the page throughout the week.

First of all, indulge me while I walk the northern section of the High Line, which skirts the Penn Station Yards north of 30th Street, swinging over to 12th Avenue. I tried it last October, but found it fenced off; High Line management periodically closes some sections for repair work. Here’s a mural on a powerhouse or ventilation building at 11th Avenue and West 35th that looks a lot like an Eduardo Kobra. I passed a legit Kobra later during this trip.

Current architectural fashion dictates that most new high rise towers must present a blue-glass face to the world. Javits Center, completed in the late 1980s, is faced by green glass. In any case, I’m highlighting the supertall lampposts on the west side of 11th Avenue between West 34th and 39th Streets; they may be owned and operated by the Jav, since they do not appear on 11th Avenue’s east side.

Here’s the High Line entrance gate on West 34th between 11th and 12th Avenues. This is also the site where relatively cheap express buses pick up passengers for trips to locales along the east coast. The area has been more accessible since 2015, as the #7 Flushing Line was extended to Hudson Yards at 11th Avenue years before it opened. Hard to believe it has been a full decade now.

Fencing, especially in the extended western section, is generously laden with signs retelling the history of the West Side Freight RR and how it became High Line Park.

I don’t think it’s a shocker to read here that Hudson Yards has always left me cold, with its blue-glass towers. I do hope to get to the observation deck at #10 Hudson Yards, called Edge NYC, but I’m back to pinching pennies again. Maybe. I have no intention to climb the Vessel, seen in the center in the westward facing photos, and Hudson Yards owners had to install fencing to keep troubled people from jumping off.

The view of the west end of the Penn Railyards is meant to be temporary, as another section of Hudson Yards will eventually rise on top of it.

The High Line swings next to 12th Avenue, known officially, without much signage, as Joe DiMaggio Highway for the Yankee great who played from 1936-1951, missing years to WWII. Until 1985 12th Avenue was shadowed by the West Side elevated Highway, built partially in tandem with the High Line in the early 1930s. The two shared industrial designs, including grim iron pillars with exposed bolts. The West Side Highway was allowed to become dangerous because of lack of maintenance, adn closed below 59th Street in 1973, though the abandoned structure was slowly demolished as late as 1985.

12th Avenue was supplied with retro Corvingon lampposts a couple of decades ago. I regret that the mod for the fire alarm lamp holder was never duplicated, and the indicators were mounted on J-brackets as here. In a previous post, FNY noted the tulip device on the finial, which covers the photocell that turns on the lamps at dusk.

A look at the Terminal Warehouse and behind it, Starrett-Lehigh Building.

Terminal Warehouse:

The hulking, fortress-like brick Terminal Warehouse at 11th Avenue and West 28th Street was constructed in 1890 with a design known as American Round Arch by architect George Mallory on land purchased by industrialist William Wickes Rossiter. His brother, E. V. W. Rossiter , was Treasurer of the New York Central Railroad, the railroad that had trundled down the centers of 10th and 11th Avenue, carrying goods between the factories and warehouses then bustling on the west side of town, and the ships that brought those goods to NYC docked on the Hudson River. Mallory created an immense hulk that was actually an amalgamation of 25 separate structures within the exterior wall.

Rossiter’s massive Terminal Warehouse offered shipping, warehousing and moving and packing spaces all in one building. Massive arches on the 11th and 12th Avenue ends admitted freight trains as spurs from the tracks running down the center of 11th Avenue, and coming in from shoreside on 12th Avenue, and easy admittance for goods. The Warehouse offered cold storage during summers in an era when private refrigeration was not as common as it became later in the 20th Century. Metallic letters preserved on the facade still advertise it. The Warehouse also specialized in the storage of large, bulky stage sets used in Broadway productions. However, the Warehouse was conflagration-prone and thousands of dollars of goods, including some of the stage sets, were lost to fire in the early days.

Unfortunately, W. W. Rossiter passed away from cancer in 1897 at age 49. The Warehouse lasted for many decades as a storage venue; in the 1980s, it played host to the famed Tunnel nightclub. As Chelsea began to gentrify the huge building contained dozens of art galleries. 

Yet more changes came in 2016 as the complex’s owners wished to emulate the success of the Chelsea Market a few blocks south, which is the old Nabisco bakery that has been converted to offices on the upper floors and a food court with some retail on the bottom floor. While taxi service Uber has its offices on the upper floors, eateries/drinkeries like Porchlight and La Colombe have opened on the ground floor. 

Info from Daytonian in Manhattan and Curbed 

Starrett-Lehigh Building:

The Starrett-Lehigh Building is a huge freight terminal and warehouse occupying an entire block from 26th-27th Streets and 11th and 12th Avenues completed in 1932. It was jointly built by the Lehigh Valley RR and the Starrett Corporation (William Starrett, the builder of the Empire State Building, was called “the founder of the American skyscraper.”) The Lehigh Valley Railroad could once enter the building, with its cars accessing floors via elevator (trucks use them now). Traces of carfloats and tracks can still be seen at the waterfront. The building was a forerunner of the International Style glass walled design popular later in the century.

My fascination with the High Line stems in part because its designers retained a lot of its original iron and concrete construction and even railroad tracks in spots, as well as designing carefully curated plantings, though you’ll see weediness in spots as well. Here it swings south along West 30th Street.

I wandered over to the High Line extension above 10th Avenue and West 30th Street. Originally, the extension brought mail traffic into the  United States Postal Service Morgan Processing & Distribution Center, facing 9th Avenue at West 30th and built in 1933, a year before the railroad. This is now a public plaza allowing views of 10th Avenue north and south as well as 30th Street.

The Morgan, constructed in 1933, is now Manhattan’s main post office after the closure of the James Farley Building, at 8th Avenue between 31st and 33rd Street (its 8th avenue retail windows remain open) and dominates the SW corner of West 30th and 9th Avenue.

Looked at in any number of ways, the Morgan plant — named for Edward M. Morgan, the postmaster of New York from 1907 to 1917 — is a staggering example of federal logistics and enough to make one finally let go of one’s conception of the Postal Service as a third-tier operation mainly concerned with the avoidance of barking dogs. The plant itself is preposterously large: At 2.2 million square feet, it takes up an entire city block. It handles up to 12 million pieces of New York City’s mail every day. [NYTimes]

Long before the Morgan Processing and Distribution Center was built, this was the site of a depot for the Hudson River Railroad, a precursor of our Metro-North. President-Elect Abraham Lincoln arrived in NYC for a visit in the runup to the inaguration on March 4th, 1861, traveling from Springfield, IL by train beginning February 11th with stops in Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, Poughkeepsie, Peekskill and then New York on February 19th.

The plaza also hosts large art installations, like this pigeon sculpture , “Dinosaur,” by Colombian sculptor Iván Argote, which will be in place till late 2026. The title likely refers to the position held by many scientists and zoologists that birds are modern-day dinosaur survivors.

This pedestrian ramp above West 30th Street leads to a pedestrian plaza on 9th Avenue, facing the new Moynihan Train Hall.

At The Shed, the High Line abuts a walkway through Hudson Yards that goes to the #7 station at West 34th Street. To me, The Shed is the most interesting structure in the Yards. In fact, it is the city’s largest structure on rails. The Shed has a retractable shell that turns its performance space into a an outdoor venue, “The McCourt,”weather permitting. Unlike the glass boxes around it, here’s a truly sculptural building that is movable. It is creative in its appearance and purpose, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro and the Rockwell Group, the firms that worked on the High Line. In the fall of 2022, I had hoped to attend “Straight Line Crazy,” about the life and work of Robert Moses with Ray Fiennes as the traffic czar, but The Shed was sold out for it.

Also featured is one of the High Line’s staircase lampposts, which are relatively few, but have a design native to the park.

I descended to the street for views of the western extension over 10th Avenue. Until a few years ago the intersection was lit by incandescent pendant versions of SLECO cuplights, among the last such survivors in the city; they were replaced by brighter LEDs a few years ago.

Looking west on West 29th Street from 10th Avenue. Looming behind the High Line is #507 and #515; #507 got clearance for an odd number on the normally even numbered south side.

Death Avenue

A tavern serving Greek-American delicacies called Death Avenue has been located in a couple of buildings at 10th Avenue and West 28th Street since 2017. This seems like a fatalistic name for a drinking establishment. The name has nothing to do with the coronavirus, speeding traffic, or any other recent phenomena. Rather, it evokes Chelsea’s dim past in which steam railroad engines pulling freight cars traveled up and down 10th Avenue and, unfortunately, accounted for not a few fatalities when they struck pedestrians and horses pulling carts.

The Hudson River Railroad was established in 1851 and while it ran along the Hudson River north of NYC, it ran along West Street and 10th Avenue as far north as West 30th Street, whereupon it ran along a right of way northwest to 11th Avenue and traveled north to West 60th; only then did it swerve west toward the river.

The steam engine was often preceded by a man on horseback, who blew a horn and did the best he could to warn everyone the train was coming. By 1869, the line was merged by rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt to create the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. A large freight depot was constructed at the line’s southern end at Washington and West Houston Streets; all passenger service on the line ended pretty early on in 1871.

By the early 20th Century Manhattan’s west side was getting built out and was a great deal more congested, and the freights began to be a problem as more and more incidents, injuries and deaths were occurring, so much so that 10th and 11th Avenues were both known as “Death Avenue.” This was the spur that led to the construction of the West Side Freight Elevated line in 1934. The NYC & HRR plied 10th and 11th Avenues until 1941.

To its credit the tavern devotes an entire webpage to its name and its inspiration.

Looking west on West 28th Street. With its swirling, undulating ovoid windows, 520 West 28th abuts the High Line and is one of many unusually designed residential buildings along the linear park; I’m a Philistine; to me it just looks weird. Here’s what its owner Related Properties says about it…

At 520 West 28th, Hadid has created a seamless and optimistic vision of the future through custom interior details, thoughtful integration of indoor and outdoor space and technological innovation. The dramatic lobby, attended by a 24-hour concierge, overlooks a landscaped garden with a vertically planted wall while custom-designed furnishings and a sculptural concierge desk adorn the space. A 75-foot sky-lit pool, a private reservable spa suite and a fitness center emphasize health and wellness while a private IMAX screening room, a secured viewing room and an entertainment suite and High Line terrace allows residents to host small or large gatherings. Curated amenity spaces are designed to flow spatially from one to the next.

Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid, 520 West 28th offers a collection of loft-like residences overlooking the famed High Line park in Manhattan’s West Chelsea neighborhood. 39 unique two- to five-bedroom residences are graciously distributed over 21 interlaced levels and feature soaring ceiling heights of over ten feet, private or semi-private elevator entries and integrated setback terraces and balconies in most residences. The property is seeking LEED silver certification.

As I have been doing for a few years I nave been highlighting sidewalk signage, which has been getting more interesting. Hudson Market is a market but has table service for meals. The sign looks like a New York Sign Museum special. Porteño, an Argentinian restaurant, has faux weathered signage employing the Palatino and Baskervale fonts.

West 27th Street has preserved much of its old school appearance west of 10th Avenue. On the left is a graffiti-scarred brick textile building that was once the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Warehouse.

Some nonstandard street signs at 10th Avenue and West 26th Street, including the maroon signs marking historic districts, in this case West Chelsea. The linked Landmarks Preservation Commission reports are a treasure trove of neighborhood histories (not only buildings included in the districts). The word is “granular.”

Richie’s Corner honors a longtime street crossing guard, Richard Henderson, who was killed breaking up a fight. The sign also honors the nonprofit community organization Richard’s Way. (His entire name should be on the sign, one of my many quibbles with the DOT.) The Hudson Guild, meanwhile, honors a second community organization founded in 1897:

In 1895, Dr. John Lovejoy Elliott, a young man inspired by the growing settlement house movement, moved to the tough, working-class neighborhood of Chelsea. There, he met and encouraged a group of young, rowdy boys to take their fighting off the streets and organize into a boxing club called the “Hurly Burlies.”

Over the next few years, Dr. Elliott established numerous programs for boys and girls, working women, and families. These groups merged in 1897 to become Hudson Guild, which provided a platform for neighbors to organize and improve living conditions. [Hudson Guild]

The sign is in blue and white, an early color used for honorific signs. The DOT switched to green for these signs a couple of decades ago.

That’s one impressive concrete clad building at #259 10th Avenue between West 25th and 26th Streets. It looks like it could survive multiple bombings. I’ll turn to the West Chelsea LPC report:

The ten-story, concrete building at 259 Tenth Avenue, also referred to as the R.C. Williams Building, was built [in 1927, architect Cass Gilbert] as headquarters for a wholesale grocery company with branches around the world. R.C. Williams & Co. was first established in 1809 as a small grocery store by Richard S. (R.S.) Williams and his partner John Mott. Located at 167 Fly Market, at what is now Maiden Lane and South Street, the small grocery operation grew quickly into a major corporation. By 1811, the firm was importing a diverse range of products including cane sugar, rum, molasses, coffee, salt, pepper, cinnamon, rice, bananas, oranges, wines, ales, brandies, liqueurs, dates, raisins, and even French bonbons. In 1814, the company relocated to a site closer to the new Fulton Ferry, and in 1820, following the death of Mott, the business was renamed the R.S. Williams Company after its surviving founder. In 1881, the operation, which had already undergone numerous name changes in its previous seven decades, was renamed, for the last time, R.C. Williams & Co. after Roswell C. (R.C.) Williams, cousin to R.S. Williams. In 1888, the company relocated again to new quarters at 56-60 Hudson Street in the Washington Market area (now TriBeCa), where it would remain for nearly 40 years.

In 1957, the H. Wolff Book Manufacturing Company took over the building (it had already built a headquarters at #508-518 West 26th Street in 1927) but remained there only a few years. It placed “Wolff Building” on the 10th Avenue entrance, but one of the F’s has disappeared. Presently, this grand old fortress hosts art galleries and other small concerns. I was impressed with the lamp sconce and the barred windows.

As for R.C. Williams, Cass Gilbert had the same idea when he designed the Austin-Nichols Warehouse in Williamsburg (seen on this page).

An empty lot (which will soon be filled no doubt) allows a good look at the High Line from West 26th, including one of its observation decks, seen behind the rectangular box. Looming in the rear right on 26th are a pair of buildings formerly home to the Harris Unis Iron Works.

From West 25th Street, the High Line view is squeezed between a new residential tower called the Emerson on the left and the R.C. Williams Building on the right.

Located in two parcels facing 10th Avenue between West 25th and 27th Street, the John Lovejoy Elliott Houses were designed by Swiss architect William Lescaze, who took a cue from fellow Swiss Le Corbusier‘s “towers in the park” template, and were among the first examples of the genre, opening in 1947.

Architecture new and old faces off on 10th Avenue between West 24th and 25th. The corner building, #258, is particularly of interest because it harbors a neon sign for Joe’s Tavern, which has not been there in decades (1989 by some reports). And, a close look at the front of the building reveals a pair of “258s” which look ancient, from the late 1800s perhaps. Ephemeral New York has some information.

The west side of 10th Avenue between West 24th and 25th is all relatively new, except for the longstanding parking garage. The glass front buildings are more interesting that usual because of the large picture windows. I hope they make curtains or blinds big enough to fit!

Some old skool Chelsea looking west at West 24th, where the High Line skirts a car wash and behind it, #508 West 24th, completed in 2014 with a clock facing the elevated walkway.

The Mermaid Inn, #227 10th Avenue between West 23rd and 24th, is a popular seafood restaurant with branches in Tribeca, Chelsea and the Upper West Side.

Two views looking west on West 23rd. HL23 at 515 West 23rd is a residential tower completed by architect Neil Denari in 2010. The unusually-shaped tower bows out on the top 4 floors to stretch over the High Line. Author Sebastian Jünger’s Half King Restaurant was on the near side of the elevated on the right. It was a popular literary hangout in the tradition of the Algonquin Hotel in Midtown. I’ve told the story often, but my one visit was when I was soaking wet. I had been on a ride with Newtown Historical Society’s Christina Wilkinson on the John Harvey fireboat. I was standing on deck when they turned the jets on.

Christina says that’s the only time she ever heard me let loose with a fusillade of curses…

One of my favorite apartment complexes in NYC, London Terrace, takes up the entire block between West 23rd, West 24th, 9th and 10th Avenues — one of the few developments in NYC that can make that claim. The complex, built from 1929-1934, consists of over 1700 apartments in 14 connected buildings and was considered the largest apartment complex in the world when completed. The units surround a private garden and residents have access to a swimming pool and health club. One-bedrooms are in the $3,000s and above.

Developer Harry Mandel began acquiring land in this block in the late 1920s and construction began in 1929. The complex was named for an earlier development built in the 1840s that was also known as London Terrace, as they were built to look like typical London apartments at that time, known as flats in Britain. Much of the property was leased from the descendants of Clement Clarke Moore of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” fame. Though the Moore family had a colonial-era residence in Newtown, now Elmhurst, Queens, Moore inherited his grandfather’s estate, “Chelsea,” and resided there the rest of his life until his death in 1863 at his summer residence in Newport, Rhode Island, He resisted the relentless grid plan that was under construction in Manhattan in midcentury, but donated 66 acres that became today’s General Theological Seminary.  His great-great grandson, also Clement Clarke Moore, laid the cornerstone for the new London Terrace in December 1929 and rental units first became available in mid-1930. The complex was constructed by the architectural firm Farrar & Watmough.

Farrar and Watmough completed the mid-block buildings facing West 23rd and 24th Streets by 1931, while the exterior buildings facing 9th and 10th Avenues were finished in 1934. Unfortunately the Great Depression occurred just as the building began construction, and it fell into default in 1934. Developer Harry Mandel was wiped out in 1932, losing a fortune of $14 million, about $240 million by today’s reckoning. Ultimately, though, London Terrace became a financial success because of its proximity to the brand-new 8th Avenue IND Subway. The 9th Avenue El also ran past it for about a decade after completion. Presently London Terrace is operated as two separate entities, London Terrace Gardens on the side streets, and London Terrace Towers on 9th and 10th Avenues.

Eduardo Kobra has become the NYC area’s premier building muralist, with “installations” depicting Michael Jackson (East Village), David Bowie (Jersey City) and much more, not only here but in many other countries. Here at 10th Avenue and West 22nd, he presents the “Mount Rushmore” of modern and pop art: Andy Warhol, Frida KahloKeith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It’s fun to spot one I haven’t previously seen while I’m walking around.

Below the mural, The Empire Diner was created by the Fodero Dining Car Company in the 1940s and renovated into a haute-cuisine restaurant in 1979. A stainless steel model of the Empire State Building was installed on the corner that vanished after the Empire closed in May 2010. Customers have included Babe Ruth, Albert Einstein, Barbra Streisand and Madonna. Miraculously, it’s survived intact despite the demise of similar diners in Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen, such as the Cheyenne on 9th and West 33rd, the Market on 11th Avenue and West 43rd, the River Diner on 11th and West 37th, and the Munson on 11th and West 46th.

Nothing Could Be Finer: A Look at NYC Diners [FNY]

After numerous changes of ownership the Empire Diner reopened in 2014. Its menu still features more expensive fare than classic NYC diners.

A pair of views looking west on West 22nd. This is deep Chelsea, where changes have been less frequent; still, the round-cornered residential 512 West 22nd Street can be seen peeking through. The building looks like modern day copy of the Starrett Lehigh Building.

Pepe Giallo, “Yellow Pepper,” a highly rated Italian restaurant at #195 10th between west 21st and 22nd.

512 West 22nd looms above the Roman Catholic Church of the Guardian Angel, 193 10th Avenue at West 21st Street, sits catercorner from from the General Theological Seminary. The parish originated on West 23rd Street in 1888. The original church had to be torn down in the early 1930s to make way for the West Side Elevated Freight Railroad, now the High Line, which faces the back end of the church.  The New York Central Railroad, therefore, funded this Sicilian Romanesque church that was completed in 1930 with John Van Pelt as its architect. Lavish bas reliefs on the 10th Avenue side depict Biblical scenes in order from Genesis to the Apocalypse. The parish parochial school on 10th Avenue was built at the same time as the church and shares its Sicilian Romanesque design.

A well-preserved trio of houses on the landmarked block of West 21st at the corner of 10th Avenue, #469-473. They are Italianate walkups constructed in 1853.

Looking west from West 21st, the new #177 10th Avenue is seen at left, with Guardian Angel on the right. #551 West 21st is the tall tower further west.

At 10th Avenue and West 20th-21st Streets the west end of the General Theological Seminary, an Episcopal institution, comes into view.

Thomas Clarke, a retired British seaman, bought acreage in this area (roughly between West 14th and 23rd Streets and 7th Avenue west to the river), naming it for Chelsea Hospital in London, a facility corresponding to NYC’s Sailors Snug Harbor, a retirement place for retired seamen. His son was Clement Clarke Moore, of ‘”Twas the Night Before Christmas” fame.

Architect George Coolidge Haight designed and built the various Gothic Revival buildings of the Seminary, including the Chapel of the Good Shepherd, between 1827 and 1902. The Seminary grounds had been an apple orchard owned by Clement Clarke Moore, an academician who was Professor of Oriental and Greek literature, as well as divinity and biblical Learning at the General Theological Seminary, which had been founded in 1817; Moore donated part of his property for the new Seminary buildings. Moore anonymously published the holiday poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas” in a Troy, NY newspaper in 1823; he did not publish it with a byline until 1844. Moore’s depiction of Santa Claus in the poem, combined with Thomas Nast’s depictions, helped to solidify The Jolly One’s present image. The Seminary has a magnificent library and the campus is an urban oasis of quiet.

More Chelsea as it was looking west on West 20th, with a parking lot and Kamco Building Materials directly under the High Line.

The south end of 10th Avenue features a number of new developments. I like 456 West 19th, developed by the Tamarkin Co., for its brick exterior and plethora of windows, though I could do without the upper floors with the undulating platforms.

But we enter the realm of the ridiculous with #149 10th Avenue with its bulging windows, known as The Lantern. I’m reminded of H.P.Lovecraft’s monsters the shoggoths:

It was a terrible, indescribable thing vaster than any subway train—a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and un-forming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front that bore down upon us, crushing the frantic penguins and slithering over the glistening floor that it and its kind had swept so evilly free of all litter. “At the Mountains of Madness”

Looking west on West 19th, none of the objects in the photo, except the High Line (1934) existed before about 2010. A truck rental was on the left, and a Kamco retail outlet was on the right.

Undulating, twisting exteriors are an architectural rage these days, and 76 11th Avenue’s two towers under construction exemplify the trend, looking west on West 18th. NY YIMBY has renderings of what the finished buildings will look like. They have awaited completion since 2019!

Another Eduardo Kobra, featuring Mother Teresa and Mohandas Gandhi, can be seen on this building at 10th Avenue and West 18th.

The High Line slices over 10th Avenue at an agle between East 16th and 17th, which allowed its developers to construct a second observation deck facing north. Note that the original exterior of the elevated Rr was carefully curated and preserved, exposed bolts and all.

Certain areas and intersections of NYC are given deluxe, large street signs that include the house numbers of the block. The blue honorific sign was installed in 1996 when the block of West 17th was subnamed for Everett E. Hatcher, an undercover Special Agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration who was shot and killed on duty in Staten Island.

The 1900-era building at the corner of 10th Avenue and West 17th street was formerly home to Red Rock West (1995-2008), which copied the still-extant Hogs and Heifers with its coterie of sexy barmaids.On the corner there are chiseled street signs marking 10th Avenue and West 17th.

The High Line has an abandoned spur entering one of the National Biscuit Company buildings at West 16th. The main building on 9th Avenue hosts Chelsea Market and the TV station NY1, seen on Spectrum cable.

The National Biscuit Company was formed in 1898 by a merger of the midwest American Bakeries and the eastern New York Biscuit Company, while these companies, in turn, had been formed by mergers of much smaller local bakery firms. The next year, 1899, Nabisco, as the firm came to be known, controlled hundreds of bakeries and reported an income of $55 million annually. Nabisco then launched its first national product, a soda cracker, and contracted ad giant N.W. Ayer to devise a name and a campaign, and the era’s Don Drapers arrived at the punny Uneeda.

At the same time, cardboard packaging and wax paper wrapping was beginning to catch on, instead of the previous methods of cracker barrels and crates. Bread products could now be moved to store shelves easily and protected from spoilage. Ayer devised ads featuring the Uneeda Boy, clutching a box of Uneeda in various scenarios. Even the streamlined sanserif lettering on the package and the ads pointed toward a mid-20th Century esthetic.

In subsequent years Nabisco devised dozens of popular cracker and cookie brands, such as Oreo in 1912, still the USA’s most popular cookie brand. Nabisco merged with Standard Brands in 1981 and was purchased by RJ Reynolds in 1985, creating a snack food monopoly that also included Planters’  Nuts and Life Savers candy.


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9/21/25

7 comments

Peter June 21, 2025 - 11:10 am

There is definitely something off-putting about Hudson Yards, even if I can’t quite articulate what it is. But it’s definitely there. Even so, it’s remarkable to see *something* getting built in the city in a semi-reasonable time frame (hey, how’s that Second Avenue Subway doing?)

As huge as the Javits Center may be it’s only the fifth largest in the country, behind the ones in Chicago, Orlando, Las Vegas and Atlanta. It can’t accommodate some of the very largest conventions like the consumer electronics show in Las Vegas and also is plagued by union issues. This is possibly of less significance than used to be the case, as mega conventions may be falling out of favor.

Reply
Kenneth Buettner June 24, 2025 - 5:41 am

When the current Grand Central was constructed at the dawn of the 20th Century, a “Terminal City” was created above the massive New York Central rail yards. It was a stroke of genius and created acres of new space for development. Since the resulting buildings were constructed over many years by different developers, the space is typical to the rest of midtown and few people realize it is sitting over those yards.
A few years later, when Rockefeller Center was conceived, a different path was taken. The project, which covered several city blocks, was planned as a total entity, with unified architecture and design. This new “city-within-a-city” worked well then, and continues to work well now.
Hudson Yards is an opportunity lost. With planning, vision and care, it could have been this century’s Rockefeller Center – a new “city-within-a-city” on the West Side. Unfortunately, the planning was shortsighted, there was little-to-no vision, and any care was minimal. The Shed is the sole success story here. The Vessel is telling of the overall failure of what Hudson Yards could have been.

Reply
chris June 21, 2025 - 8:52 pm

Here in Tampa,a freight train used to be preceded by two guys with flags whenever
a train went through downtown but CSX Transportation realized how gay it looked and stopped
the practice

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stan June 22, 2025 - 11:27 am

Great piece! The experience of walking the High Line has changed over the years. Initially, as you noted, it provided an unmatched visual perspective, east & west, of this area of Manhattan. The far west side streets had, until he High Line, certainly been off my beaten path (I’m a 4th generation Manhattanite). As the real estate guys developed the area on both sides of the High Line, those distinctive views were largely blocked. However, the High Line’s creative landscaping with mostly native varieties grew denser and more beautiful with every passing year, and to a degree, compensated for the blocked views. Now, the problem is crowding. You’d best go there as early in the morning as you can, before the suffocating hordes of tourists descend.

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philipe June 23, 2025 - 9:23 am

I played fast pitch softball at Chelsea Park for eons, when it was blacktopped and then astro-turfed.
There was a bar on the northwest corner of 28th and Tenth that we used to patronize after games. There was a deli on the southwest corner of 28th and Tenth that would deliver beer to us in the dugout.
Great memories.

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Kenneth Buettner June 25, 2025 - 5:41 am

The names of communities within the City have been created, and abandoned, for decades, reflecting geography, topography, inhabitants and history. They are also the products of developers and real estate brokers. I recently saw listings in what I have always known as Hells Kitchen. Apparently, the name was uncomfortable for the listing broker, who said the apartment was in North Chelsea!

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Howard Wharton June 30, 2025 - 3:32 pm

The High Line which was part of New York Central’s West Side Freight Line was officially the 30th Street Branch as shown on the railroad’s employee’s time table which lasted through Penn Central to Conrail which abandoned the line.

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