Originally published on 3/22/25

Back in the day, people from all over the world came to New York City hoping to become writers, actors, singers, directors or all of the above. And upon their arrival, they all convened in one place: The Chelsea Hotel. Below, we have compiled a list of the 16 most famous people who have lived in the Chelsea Hotel and found out what they remember from their time there. Read on for more. 

What is the Chelsea Hotel? 

Built from 1883 to 1885, The Chelsea Hotel–or Hotel Chelsea as it is officially called—has served as a Manhattan staple for many years thanks to its welcoming energy and illustrious residents. The building is still fully operational today, with about 20 full-time residents living there.

Celebrities who lived at the Chelsea Hotel 

Arthur Miller’s escape from the spotlight

Playwright Arthur Miller was born in 1915 and is perhaps best known for creating Death of a Salesman (1949) and The Crucible (1953). He was also famously married to actress Marilyn Monroe from 1956 until 1961. 

Following their split, Miller moved into Room 614 at the Hotel Chelsea as a way to try and hide from the press, remaining there until 1968. During that time, he wrote a play called After the Fall (1964) and an essay entitled The Chelsea Affect in which he talked about his time at the hotel. 

“I decided to move to the Chelsea in 1960 for the privacy I was promised,” wrote Miller. “It seemed a wonderfully out-of-the-way place, nearly a slum, where nobody would likely to be looking for me.

“As in dreams, things are out front that are concealed in other hotels, like the wooden bins in the corridors in which the garbage pails are kept, and for some unknowable reason this sort of candor seems so right that you smile whenever you pass the bins. It may simply be that nobody is urgently concerned about what is happening because nobody quite knows what is happening.” 

Miller died in 2005 from congestive heart failure. He was 89 years old. 

Leonard Cohen and Janis Joplin’s famous affair

Poet, novelist and musician Leonard Cohen lived in Room 424 at the Hotel Chelsea during the spring of 1968. While there, he famously had an affair with resident and singer Janis Joplin and even released a song in her honor entitled “Chelsea Hotel #2.” 

“I came to New York and I was living at other hotels and I had heard about the Chelsea Hotel as being a place where I might meet people of my own kind,” Cohen said in 1993. “And I did. It was a grand, mad place.” 

Cohen died in 2016 at age 82 years old. 

Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe

Anyone who listened to Taylor Swift’s song “The Tortured Poets Department” knows that singer, songwriter, poet, painter and author Patti Smith stayed at the Hotel Chelsea alongside her friend and lover Robert Mapplethorpe. The two resided in the hotel’s smallest room—1017—and paid $55 a week for it. 

“I loved this place, its shabby elegance, and the history it held so possessively … So many had written, conversed, and convulsed in these Victorian dollhouse rooms,” Smith wrote in her memoir. “ So many skirts had swished these worn marble stairs. So many transient souls had espoused, made a mark and succumbed here.”

Sadly, the couple eventually broke up and moved out of the hotel, but the dates surrounding those things remain unknown. 

Smith is still alive today, whereas Mapplethorpe died in 1989 from HIV/AIDS. He was 42. 

Dylan Thomas’s dark time 

Just like Smith, the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas was also mentioned in Swift’s album The Tortured Poets Department, because he, too, lived at the Hotel Chelsea once upon a time. The details surrounding his stay, though, including the specifics of when he got there and checked out, remain a mystery. 

Thomas died of pneumonia in 1953 at age 39. 

Mark Twain’s historic stay 

Beloved classic author Mark Twain is widely believed to have been one of the Hotel Chelsea’s first-ever guests in 1901. Similar to a lot of other guests, though, details about his stay remain murky. 

Twain is best known for writing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). He died in 1910 at age 74. 

Janis Joplin’s fling to tragic death

During her time at the Hotel Chelsea, singer Janis Joplin certainly made quite a name for herself. Not only did she have an affair with Cohen—as mentioned above—but that hotel was one of the few places the singer lived before dying of a heroin overdose in 1970. 

To this day, she remains one of the hotel’s most talked-about guests, and her door reportedly sold for $106,250. 

Joni Mitchell’s ‘Chelsea Morning’

During the late 1960s, singer Joni Mitchell stayed at the Hotel Chelsea and even wrote a song about it entitled “Chelsea Morning.” 

“The sun poured in like butterscotch and stuck to all my senses,’ she sang. “Was the sun through yellow curtains? And a rainbow on the wall. Blue, red, green, and gold to welcome you.” 

Mitchell moved out of the hotel pretty soon after that, and the door to her bedroom was reportedly sold for $10,000. 

The singer is still alive. 

Bob Dylan’s famous song inspiration 

Two of Bob Dylan’s most famous songs came from his stay at the Hotel Chelsea. While residing in room 211 from 1961 until 1964, the singer wrote and released “Sara” and “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowland,” both of which are believed to be about his time there. 

After checking out, Dylan’s career continued to climb and he was awarded several highly sought-after prizes, including a Nobel Prize, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, A Pulitzer Prize and several Grammy awards. 

Dylan is still alive and has six kids. He is also the focus of actor Timothée Chalamet’s latest film, A Complete Unknown, and his door at the hotel sold for $125,000, 

Madonna’s wild times

Before she became a material girl, Madonna lived at the Hotel Chelsea in the early 1980s. When she stayed there and how long remains unclear, but the singer returned in 1992 to shoot photos for her book Sex in Room 822. 

Madonna is 66 years old and has four children. 

Cher was there, too

Cher’s stay at the Hotel Chelsea isn’t talked about a lot, as it often gets overshadowed by the rest of her accomplishments. Still, it is widely believed that she did reside there at some point in her life, but the years remain unclear. 

Maybe Cher will finally shed some light on her stay in the second part of her memoir, releasing later this year. 

Mick Jagger’s many guests

The legendary Mick Jagger—best known for being the lead singer for the rock band The Rolling Stones—lived at the Hotel Chelsea, according to fashion designer Betsy Johnson, although, like a lot of other guests, the dates remain a mystery. 

“In those days, nobody was famous. Nobody was like whoa, except for Andy and Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger,” Johnson told Vanity Fair. “Everyone else was on the same plane of having an idea, believing in it, and going for it. Needing to talk about it, needing support from other people in the same boat.”

Mick Jagger is currently 81 years old and still performs from time to time.

Bob Marley’s pricey souvenir

Before his tragic death in 1981, singer Bob Marley was among the many singers to reside within the walls of the Hotel Chelsea. It isn’t clear when he stayed there, but that didn’t stop people from buying the door to his supposed room for $8,250.

Marley is best known for his songs  “No Woman, No Cry,” “Three Little Birds,” “Get Up, Stand Up” and “Is This Love.” 

Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen’s tragic ending 

The last—and most haunting—residents on this list are Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen. 

Vicious was a famous bassist in the band Sex Pistols, and he lived at Hotel Chelsea with his girlfriend Spungen in 1978. 

And while everything seemed fine at first, Vicious was soon arrested and charged with stabbing and killing Spungen later that same year in Room 100. He was then granted bail but died from a heroin overdose soon after in 1979. 

Spungen’s story remains one of the darkest and most tragic events to take place at the hotel. 

If you like Chelsea Hotel, you’ll love Fiona Davis’s bestselling novel, The Chelsea Girls. It follows the lives of two fictional resident’s who make a name for themselves in the Theater District. 

Link to original: https://www.womansworld.com/entertainment/celebrities/dylan-thomas-to-patti-smith-the-celebrities-of-the-chelsea-hotel