Maritime Hotel

363 West 16th Street | also 92 9th Avenue, 88 9th Avenue | Chelsea | built 1969

Open on the map4 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1969

    Albert C. Ledner designs the National Maritime Union's Ninth Avenue building

    Architect Albert C. Ledner designs this white, porthole-studded building as part of a trio for the National Maritime Union. It is named Joseph Curran Plaza for the union's first president, and Wikipedia nicknames it the pizza box building. The Curran complex held union offices, a pension fund, medical and training facilities, seamen's dormitory rooms, a gym, a pool, and a 900-seat auditorium.

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1987

    The maritime union sells its buildings to Covenant House

    As the union's fortunes decline with falling activity in the Port of New York, it sells its Ninth Avenue and 17th Street buildings to Covenant House. The drug-rehabilitation program uses them as a shelter and educational facility for runaways.

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1994

    The Chinese government buys the union's former buildings

    The Chinese government buys the former union buildings at Ninth Avenue and 17th Street and runs them as the New York Service Center for Chinese Study Fellows. The center provides housing and other services for Chinese artists, students, and businesspeople.

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 2003

    The Maritime Hotel opens in the former union building

    Sean MacPherson and Eric Goode, nightclub and restaurant entrepreneurs, buy the Ninth Avenue building for $19 million in 2001 and convert it into a hotel with developers Richard Born and Ira Drukier. The Maritime Hotel opens in 2003 with 121 rooms and 5 suites decorated in a nautical theme. Its porthole-inspired facade recalls the building's maritime-union past.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 72 buildings with stories in Chelsea