Hotel Chelsea
Hotel Chelsea
West 23rd Street, New York
At 222 West 23rd Street, where Smith and Mapplethorpe had Room 1017 in 1969. Rooms run from the Petite Chelsea to two-bedroom suites, with El Quijote and a lobby bar downstairs.
Check roomsW 23rd St · Bleecker St · E 10th St · the Bowery
Circled: Patti Smith on stage at Tivolis Koncertsal, Copenhagen, October 1976. Ib Rasmussen.
Patti SmithNew York from 1967, and the rooms, streets and stages you can still find
A hotel room paid for with two portfolios. A record shop where a clerk became her guitarist. A church where the guitar first came in. A white penthouse with one triangle of sun. A club on the Bowery, first night to last.
Ten shots in the pack ↓
Sources
Frames: 1976, Ib Rasmussen, Public domain · 1978, UCLA Library Special Collections, CC BY 2.0 · 1978, Klaus Hiltscher, CC BY-SA 2.0 · 1978, Klaus Hiltscher, CC BY-SA 2.0 · 1979, Bodow, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Ten places in New York · one pack
Ten shots.
Smith has said that with the Polaroid you go out for the day with ten shots, so you think about each one. Here is a pack of ten, one for each place in her New York. Choose, then shoot.
Sources
Aim at
A fresh pack: 10 shots. Aim at a place, then press the shutter.
The table is empty. Prints land here.
The ten places in this pack, and where each fact comes from:
Sources
222 West 23rd Street · 1969
The key to 1017.
In 1969 Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe moved into the Chelsea, after a dangerous loft on the Lower East Side and a spell in a fleabag hotel. Stanley Bard, who ran the hotel, took artists’ work instead of rent and hung it in the lobby.
Nothing on the desk yet.
1017The key stays on its hook until the desk is happy.
Sources
Get the key first.
Get the key first.
Get the key first.
A working hotel, with a lobby bar and El Quijote downstairs. Book a room or a table, or see the iron balconies from West 23rd Street.
Sources
Bleecker Street · East 10th Street · Park Avenue South
Plug in.
Lenny Kaye sold records on Bleecker Street. Push the lead into the amp and watch three places turn into the start of a band.
Unplugged. Poems, coffee and records.
Around 1970 · 170 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village
Village Oldies
Village Oldies sold old 45s. Two men known as Broadway Al and Bleecker Bob opened it in 1967.
See number 170 from the pavement on Bleecker Street.
Sources
10 February 1971 · 131 East 10th Street, East Village
St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery
In the early 1970s the poet Gregory Corso took Smith to Poetry Project readings here, and heckled the dull ones.
She made a note never to be boring if she ever got to read.
On 10 February 1971 Gerard Malanga let her open his reading.
A working church and the home of the Poetry Project. Go to a reading: most start at 8pm and many cost $10.
Sources
Late 1973 · 213 Park Avenue South, Union Square
Max’s Kansas City
Smith called it one corner of downtown’s Bermuda Triangle, with Brownie’s vegetarian restaurant and Warhol’s Factory, all a walk apart.
She and Mapplethorpe sat for hours over twenty-five-cent coffees, edging their way into the red-lit back room.
See the building from Park Avenue South.
Sources
It was the start of a partnership that has lasted five decades.
Sources
One Fifth Avenue · 1975
Catch the light.
The cover of Horses was shot in the penthouse of Mapplethorpe’s patron Sam Wagstaff, at One Fifth Avenue. Mapplethorpe chose it because the penthouse was full of natural light.
Wait for the sky to clear, or move the sun yourself.
Smith remembered a very white room, and a triangle of light that came through a window.
The light kept changing, so they had to work as fast as they could.
Catch the light to see the building today.
Sources
November 1975 · 52 West 8th Street, Greenwich Village
Studio A
She came back to Studio A to make Horses with John Cale producing. It came out in November 1975.
It reworked rock songs such as Gloria and Land of a Thousand Dances, and reached the American Top 50. In June 1974 the group recorded a first single at Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios: Hey Joe, with her own Piss Factory. Smith remembered going in one night and doing it in one night.
A working studio, not open to visitors. See the front from West 8th Street.
Sources
315 Bowery · 1974–2006
Stamp the hand.
Hilly Kristal opened CBGB on the Bowery in 1973. Hold out your hand at the door, one night at a time.
Your hand is clean. Hold it out at the door.
- Easter Sunday 1974
Not yet stamped.
- Early 1975
Not yet stamped.
- 1 May 1975
Not yet stamped.
- 15 October 2006
Not yet stamped.
The club closed in 2006. See 315 Bowery from the pavement.
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Punk and downtown music walks
New York
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Compare toursSt. Clair Shores · Hartford · Coney Island · West 8th Street
Further out.
1980s · St. Clair Shores, Michigan
St. Clair Shores
Smith and her husband, Fred “Sonic” Smith, left New York for St. Clair Shores, a quiet suburb of Detroit, so they could be a family rather than be split by touring.
Through the 1980s she stayed home with their children and stopped touring. She wrote Woolgathering there. Dream of Life, released in 1988, was the record she and Fred had been writing and recording in those years.
The family house was a private home. This page names the town and leaves it off the map.
Sources
600 Main Street, Hartford, Connecticut
Camera Solo
Camera Solo, from 21 October 2011 to 19 February 2012, was the first museum show of Smith’s photographs in the United States.
It had seventy photographs, one multimedia installation and one video work. Among the pictures were Robert’s Slippers (2002) and Arthur Rimbaud’s Utensils (2005).
A public museum. Open Wednesday to Friday 11am–5pm and weekends 10am–5pm when we checked; adults $24.
Sources
Surf Avenue at West 10th Street, Coney Island
The Cyclone
The cover photograph of Smith’s memoir Just Kids was taken in front of the Cyclone.
The roller coaster has run since 26 June 1927. It became a New York City landmark in 1988 and joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. Its first drop is 85 feet, at close to 60 degrees.
A working ride at Luna Park. Hours change with the day and the weather, so check the park calendar.
Sources
2012–2015 · 52 West 8th Street, Greenwich Village
Back at Electric Lady
Banga, her eleventh studio album, was recorded here too, produced by Smith and her band, and released on 5 June 2012.
In August 2015 she played Horses to a packed Studio A for the studio’s 45th anniversary. The recording became the first Electric Lady Records release.
Sources
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
A day at the Wadsworth
600 Main Street, Hartford
The Hartford museum that gave Smith’s photographs their first US museum show, Camera Solo, in 2011–12. Open Wednesday to Friday 11am–5pm and weekends 10am–5pm when we checked; adults $24, Hartford residents and under-13s free.
Plan a visitVisit
Where it is now
11 places you can visit. The family house in St. Clair Shores was a private home, so it is named and left off the map; One Fifth Avenue and 24 Bond Street are private buildings you see from the street.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working hotel, with a lobby bar and El Quijote downstairs. Book a room or a table, or see the iron balconies from West 23rd Street.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. An apartment building and private homes. Look at it from Washington Square Park, through the arch.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working studio, not open to visitors. See the front from West 8th Street.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. See number 170 from the pavement on Bleecker Street.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. See the building from Park Avenue South.
The Hotel Chelsea at night, West 23rd Street, April 2024. Summermother · CC BY-SA 4.0 222 West 23rd Street, Chelsea
Hotel Chelsea
In 1969 Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe moved into the Chelsea, after a dangerous loft on the Lower East Side and a spell in a fleabag hotel.
A working hotel, with a lobby bar and El Quijote downstairs. Book a room or a table, or see the iron balconies from West 23rd Street.
Sources
One Fifth Avenue in late-afternoon sun beyond the Washington Square Arch, November 2024. BruceSchaff. BruceSchaff · CC BY-SA 4.0 One Fifth Avenue, at Washington Square
One Fifth Avenue
The cover of Horses was shot in the penthouse of Mapplethorpe’s patron Sam Wagstaff, at One Fifth Avenue.
An apartment building and private homes. Look at it from Washington Square Park, through the arch.
Sources
The front of Electric Lady Studios on West 8th Street, 2013. Jhsounds · CC BY-SA 3.0 52 West 8th Street, Greenwich Village
Electric Lady Studios
In June 1974 the group recorded a first single at Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios: Hey Joe, with her own Piss Factory.
A working studio, not open to visitors. See the front from West 8th Street.
Sources
Bleecker Street at night, Greenwich Village, 2012. Ken Lund. Ken Lund · CC BY-SA 2.0 170 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village
Village Oldies
Village Oldies sold old 45s. Two men known as Broadway Al and Bleecker Bob opened it in 1967.
See number 170 from the pavement on Bleecker Street.
Sources
213 Park Avenue South, once Max’s Kansas City, in 2008. Eden, Janine and Jim; modified by Sirabder87 · CC BY 2.0 213 Park Avenue South, Union Square
Max’s Kansas City
Smith called it one corner of downtown’s Bermuda Triangle, with Brownie’s vegetarian restaurant and Warhol’s Factory, all a walk apart.
See the building from Park Avenue South.
Sources
Stay
Sleep at the Chelsea.
The hotel where she and Mapplethorpe had Room 1017.
Hotel Chelsea
Hotel Chelsea
West 23rd Street, New York
At 222 West 23rd Street, where Smith and Mapplethorpe had Room 1017 in 1969. Rooms run from the Petite Chelsea to two-bedroom suites, with El Quijote and a lobby bar downstairs.
Check roomsGo there
Walk downtown, see the museum.
Marketplace punk and Village music walks, and a day at the Wadsworth in Hartford.
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Compare toursWadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
A day at the Wadsworth
600 Main Street, Hartford
The Hartford museum that gave Smith’s photographs their first US museum show, Camera Solo, in 2011–12. Open Wednesday to Friday 11am–5pm and weekends 10am–5pm when we checked; adults $24, Hartford residents and under-13s free.
Plan a visitWhat’s on
Hear a reading, see her play.
Autumn readings at St. Mark’s Church, and her own words-and-music dates in Italy.
Checking current event dates…
Take it home
Books and records.
Four books and four records tied to these places. We hold no original poster for her, so there are none here.
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Just Kids
Patti Smith
Her memoir of the years with Robert Mapplethorpe. The cover was taken in front of the Cyclone.
Find the book
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M Train
Patti Smith
A memoir in cafés and journeys; she recorded the audiobook at Electric Lady in 2015.
Find the book
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Year of the Monkey
Patti Smith
A later memoir, of one year on the road.
Find the book
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Patti Smith: Camera Solo
Susan Talbott
The catalogue of the Wadsworth show of her photographs.
Find the book
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Horses
Patti Smith · LP, Arista AL 4066, 1975
Made in Studio A at Electric Lady with John Cale; released in November 1975.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copy
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Easter
Patti Smith Group · LP, Arista AB 4171, 1978
The Patti Smith Group in 1978, with Because the Night, which she wrote with Bruce Springsteen.
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Dream of Life
Patti Smith · LP, Arista AL 8453, 1988
Written and recorded with Fred Smith during the St. Clair Shores years.
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Banga
Patti Smith · 2LP, Columbia, 2012
Recorded at Electric Lady, produced by Smith and her band.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
The sources
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
12 of 12 places · 19 of 19 Moments
Hotel Chelsea
222 West 23rd Street, Chelsea
Room 1017
Two portfolios as collateral get the smallest of rooms at the Chelsea.
Cowboy Mouth
Sam Shepard hands her the typewriter and they write a play about themselves.
One Fifth Avenue
One Fifth Avenue, at Washington Square
The triangle of light
Mapplethorpe shoots the Horses cover in Sam Wagstaff’s white penthouse.
Electric Lady Studios
52 West 8th Street, Greenwich Village
One night at Electric Lady
Hey Joe and Piss Factory, cut in a night and paid for by Mapplethorpe.
Horses
The debut album, made in Studio A with John Cale.
Banga
Back at Electric Lady for her eleventh studio album.
Horses, forty years on
Horses played live to a packed Studio A.
Village Oldies
170 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village
Doo-wop on Bleecker Street
Smith rings Lenny Kaye about his doo-wop article and starts dropping in at his record shop.
Max’s Kansas City
213 Park Avenue South, Union Square
The back room
Coffee for hours, edging into the back room at Max’s, once Warhol had withdrawn after the shooting.
Six nights at Max’s
A first residency, opening for Phil Ochs, with Richard Sohl on piano.
St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery
131 East 10th Street, East Village
The first reading
Smith opens for Gerard Malanga with Lenny Kaye on guitar.
Tompkins Square Park
Avenue A to Avenue B, East Village
Into the city
Smith arrives from New Jersey, sleeps in parks and meets Mapplethorpe.
CBGB
315 Bowery, East Village
Easter Sunday on the Bowery
Smith and Kaye see Television at CBGB for the first time.
The residency
Weeks at CBGB with Television; the room fills, and the band gains a drummer.
The contract
Clive Davis offers Smith a contract with Arista.
The last night at CBGB
Smith plays the club’s final concert.
24 Bond Street
24 Bond Street, NoHo
The Cyclone, Coney Island
Surf Avenue at West 10th Street, Coney Island
Wadsworth Atheneum
600 Main Street, Hartford, Connecticut
Camera Solo
The first US museum show of her photographs.
St. Clair Shores
St. Clair Shores, Michigan
St. Clair Shores
A family life outside Detroit, away from touring.
Dream of Life
The record written and made with Fred Smith in those years.