Chelsea Market
A food hall carved out of the factory where the Oreo was born, its brick and pipework left raw beneath the High Line.
At a glance
Chelsea Market fills the ground floor of a full city block in the Meatpacking District, a covered street of food stalls, bakeries and shops under exposed brick and iron. Above it run offices; beside it runs the High Line. It is one of the busiest food halls in New York.
History
The building was the factory of the National Biscuit Company — Nabisco — and it was here, in the early twentieth century, that the Oreo cookie was first produced. When the food industry moved on, the complex was reworked, and in 1997 its ground level reopened as Chelsea Market, keeping the industrial fabric of the old factory.
What you see
The main concourse runs the length of the block, lit from above and lined with vendors: fishmongers, bakers, a spice shop, restaurants. The developers left the bones of the factory exposed — riveted beams, brick arches, old pipework — and set fragments of industrial salvage into the walls and floors as a kind of found sculpture.
Significance
Chelsea Market helped set the template for the modern urban food hall, and anchored the transformation of Chelsea and the Meatpacking District around the High Line and the galleries that followed.
Practical information
- Free to enter; vendors keep their own hours, generally daily
- Busiest at lunch and on weekends
- Directly below the southern end of the High Line
Getting there
Chelsea Market stands between Ninth and Tenth Avenues at 15th Street. The nearest subway is 14th Street / Eighth Avenue; the High Line entrance at Gansevoort Street is a short walk.
Gallery
Chelsea Market, photographed by Luigi De Marchi.
Sources
- Chelsea Market (chelseamarket.com)
- NYC Tourism (nyctourism.com)
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