If you’ve gotta do jail time, you could do worse than serving your sentence at Bayview Correctional Facility in Chelsea. This medium-security prison facing the West Side Highway is tucked away in a former YMCA called the Seaman’s Home.
Built in 1931, Seaman’s Home provided room and board to sailors during the decades when Chelsea Piers was a place to dock ships, not to work out. New York State bought the building in 1967 and turned it into a drug rehab center, then a prison in the 1970s.
The building has an institutional feel, sure, but if you look closely on the brick facade, you’ll see lovely ship and sea motifs, like these:
Tags: Bayview Correctional Facility, Chelsea Piers, New York Harbor, Seaman's Home YMCA
Ephemeral New York 
November 24, 2008 at 2:51 pm |
My friend, Marvin, spent a few days there in the seventies for a few days, and he was no woman.
August 21, 2017 at 6:52 am |
[…] the YMCA built a new seamen’s home on West 20th Street, the organization dedicated itself to providing free room and board to destitute […]