Chelsea Market

The complex stands in a pivotal location, linking Chelsea's expansion South and West, with the West Village, moving North. It was the objective of the developer to not only reinforce the wholesale and manufacturing character of the neighborhood, but to bring in more varied activities and life, as well.

This collection of buildings possesses an abundance of loading docks and access around the entire block's perimeter, so making it a natural for the relocation of local wholesale food vendors, who became the core of a block-long complex involving foods and related services. These vendors would not only have loading on their outside perimeter, but they would also be linked on the interior by a block long passage, connecting 9th and 10th Avenues.

This 800 foot long concourse would thus allow the general public access to all wholesalers and producers for cash and carry shopping.

The present Chelsea Market block is a collection of 18 separate buildings, totaling about 1 million square feet of space. It's origin being the former factory and offices of the National Biscuit Company.

The earliest buildings, near 9th Avenue, date from the 1890's, and were 25 ft. wide with massive bearing brick walls and brick arch supported floors. Subsequent development around 1910 progressed to larger 6-story cast iron and heavy cedar timber warehouses, flanking a central rail yard on the north and south, and opening westward onto rail traffic from 10th Avenue and the Hudson River piers. The southern building was later linked across 15th street to a 5-story brick warehouse through a 4th floor vaguely Venetian bridge. Their exteriors are primarily brick facade with a vertical arched expression, sturdy and far from dull.

The 1920's and early 1930's saw 6 and 8 story construction of steel columns with terracotta-arched floors, from mid-block to 9th Avenue. These structures employ iron-spot -face brick with a simplified industrial classicism enhanced with terracotta cornices, moldings, and trim.

In the mid 1930's, NABISCO built another 600,000 square feet 10-story building of the same construction, directly across 10th Avenue. In the late 30's, the west open end of the rail yard was closed with a 6-story Art Deco iron-spot brick building. This structure was also linked across 10th Avenue to its westerly cousin with a fourth floor aluminum-clad Art Deco bridge, and in addition, had to accommodate elevated tracks crossing 10th Avenue going South.

NABISCO left the complex in the mid 1940's. After a decade and a half, it was reborn as the New York Industrial Center, where it slowly continued its decline and neglect.