Chelsea Piers
111B 11th Avenue | Chelsea | built 1908
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1910
Warren & Wetmore's pink-granite Chelsea Piers open for the White Star and Cunard liners
Chelsea Piers officially opened in 1910 after about eight years of construction. The row of grand buildings with pink granite facades replaced a jumble of run-down waterfront structures. Warren & Wetmore, which also designed Grand Central Terminal, was the architect, and White Star Line and Cunard Line passenger ships were the main users. The piers could hold five ocean liners at once.
Source: Untapped New York
- 1912
The Carpathia lands the Titanic's lifeboats at the White Star Line's Pier 59
The Titanic had been bound for the White Star Line's Pier 59 when she sank in 1912. The Cunard liner Carpathia, which picked up the survivors, put the Titanic's lifeboats ashore at Pier 59 first, then went back south to Pier 54, where it let the survivors and other passengers off. A crowd of thousands gathered at the dock to greet the ship.
“Carpathia disembarked Titanic's lifeboats at Pier 59 before going back south to Pier 54…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1920
A crowd of 15,000 sees off Archbishop Daniel Mannix at Pier 60, bound for Ireland
On July 31, 1920, a rally at the White Star Line docks sent off Daniel Mannix, the Irish-born Archbishop of Melbourne. He was a vocal critic of British rule in Ireland and had led campaigns against conscription in World War I. About 15,000 New Yorkers reportedly gathered at Pier 60 to press for him to be allowed to sail, since British Prime Minister Lloyd George controlled his passage to Ireland.
“A reported 15,000 New Yorkers turned up at Pier 60 at the foot of West 20th street…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1936
The 1936 U.S. Olympic team sails for Berlin from Pier 60 aboard the SS Manhattan
In 1936 Jesse Owens and the rest of the U.S. Olympic team left for the Berlin Games aboard the SS Manhattan, which sailed from Pier 60. Owens won four gold medals in track that summer.
Source: Untapped New York
- 1992
After decades of neglect, Pier 60's tow pound is cleared in a 1992 state deal for the sports complex
After years of neglect the old piers held warehouses and city facilities: Pier 60 was the city tow pound, Pier 59 a repair shop for sanitation trucks and Pier 62 an impound station for U.S. Customs. In May 1992, after six months of research, the state Department of Transportation won the rights to renovate the area. The sports and entertainment complex then opened in stages beginning in 1995, after a $100 million renovation.
Source: Untapped New York
- 1994
Governor Cuomo and Mayor Giuliani break ground on the Chelsea Piers sports complex
Construction of the Chelsea Piers Sports & Entertainment Complex began on July 12, 1994, with Governor Mario Cuomo, Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Borough President Ruth Messinger of Manhattan on hand. The privately financed project turned Piers 59, 60 and 61, and the head house joining them, into a 28-acre waterfront sports village. It opened in August 1995.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1995
Pier 62's roller rinks open as the first piece of the $100 million Chelsea Piers sports complex
The first element of the Chelsea Piers Sports and Entertainment Complex, two outdoor roller rinks on Pier 62, opened officially on August 9, 1995. On Pier 59 the Japanese builder Shinya Muto was putting up Manhattan's first golf driving range, with four tiers, 52 stalls and a dozen 160-foot steel towers holding a net, due to finish in October. Ice was going into the complex's two indoor rinks that week, and the other facilities were to open in stages through January.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1995
Critic Paul Goldberger praises the new Chelsea Piers as a balance of public and private aims
In November 1995 The New York Times architecture critic Paul Goldberger judged the Chelsea Piers project a well-wrought balance of public and private priorities. He wrote that at a time when public waterfront parkland had become close to unattainable, the 30-acre complex was about as enlightened a scheme as the city was likely to see. The site, he said, had a presence unlike any other place in New York.
Source: Internet Archive
- 2001
Chelsea Piers becomes a triage site and volunteer base after the September 11 attacks
After the World Trade Center collapsed on September 11, 2001, EMS triage operations were pulled together at Chelsea Piers and at the Whitehall Terminal of the Staten Island Ferry. With few patients to treat, the Chelsea Piers center was taken down on September 12. Volunteers then ran an improvised disaster-recovery site there through September 16, offering sleeping space, food and cell phones to people working on the ground zero recovery.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2004
A road to Pier 62 is renamed Law & Order Way for the television series shot there
On September 14, 2004, the road that leads to Pier 62 became Law & Order Way. Katherine Oliver, the city's film commissioner, handed a street sign to the series creator Dick Wolf and NBC Universal's Jeff Zucker as the show began its fifteenth New York season. The city said the drama, shot at Pier 62 and on location across the five boroughs, was spending about $1 million a week locally and employing more than 1,800 industry workers each season.
Source: Internet Archive
Further reading
- Chelsea PiersWikipedia
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