Where God and the Devil Once Lived

From The New York Times-

IS nothing sacred? Once, this neo-Gothic landmark in Chelsea was the Church of the Holy Communion, with Gilded Age titans like Cornelius Vanderbilt among its high Episcopal parishioners.

In the 1970s, its congregation having long moved on to more verdant pastures, the church became a drug rehab center. A decade later, it was Limelight, the nightclub-slash-den of depravity, its strobes and multiple video screens casting an unholy glow on throngs of revelers writhing on the dance floor in a great communal rave.

Today that fabled nightclub is a mall.

The Limelight Marketplace flung open its winglike doors this month to receive the faithful: tourists in scuffed Nikes, teenage boys in hoodies and slouchy jeans, lithe shoppers in pricey tracksuits — all gathered to gape at the fusion of theme park and treat shop housed beneath its roof. Far above them, where scaffolding once climbed, bathed in an infernal light, the walls are tarted up with white lacquer. And Limelight’s former bat-cave interior, once reeking of damp flesh and mildew, has given way to a fragrant retail multiplex scented with lavender candles.

More Here-

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/20/fashion/20CRITIC.html