knockin' on DYLAN'S door
Bob Dylan Lived Beside A Secret Garden For 20 Years. See Inside The Home, Now On Sale For $7.25 Million
A New York City home where Bob Dylan lived quietly for years is for sale.
The singer-songwriter, one of the best-selling music artists of all time, rented the townhouse on East 49th Street in Manhattan in the 1980s. He loved it so much that he bought it in 1990 for an undisclosed amount under a business associate's name.
In 2005, he sold it to the current owners for $4.45 million; they have put it on the market with an asking price of $7.25 million.
It hit the market on December 5. The Bob Dylan biopic, "A Complete Unknown," with Timothy Chalamet as Dylan, is released in theaters on Christmas Day, December 25.
[Townhouses in Turtle Bay Gardens. Barry Winiker/Getty Images]
The five-story home is in Turtle Bay Gardens, a landmarked enclave of 20 1860s-built townhouses on East 49th and East 48th whose backyards lead to a shared garden for residents only.
Turtle Bay Gardens has long attracted creative types, including Hollywood and Broadway greats. Previous renters of Dylan's home, at 242 East 49th Street, included Mary Tyler Moore.
[A lower-level living space. Hayley Day/DDReps for Sotheby's International Realty]
Starting in the 1980s, Dylan rented the home from a married couple: screenwriter Garson Kanin and his wife, actor Ruth Gordon.
Dylan had young kids at the time and liked the privacy, "Dylan's local fix-it man at the time" told real-estate news site Curbed.
[Turtle Bay Gardens is made up of 20 townhouses that share a central green space. Heritage Images/Getty Images]
The home is located in a somewhat hidden micro-neighborhood called Turtle Bay Gardens.
"It's got a pretty esteemed history," Lisa Larson, a Sotheby's International Realty agent, said. "It has a lot of playwrights, writers, actors, and musicians who have lived in this enclave of 20 homes."
[The updated kitchen. Hayley Day/DDReps for Sotheby's International Realty]
The current owners bought the home from Dylan for $4.45 million in 2005 and then renovated it.
"They did a more modern kitchen, they redid all the bathrooms — they did a lot of capital improvements," Larson said. "It's got all the conveniences of a modern house, but yet it still retains a lot of its old-world characteristics."
[Another bedroom. Hayley Day/DDReps for Sotheby's International Realty]
According to Larson, Dylan had installed a lot of mirrors around the townhouse that didn't survive the renovation.
[The private outdoor space of the townhouse. Hayley Day/DDReps for Sotheby's International Realty]
The ground floor features a patio and garden that lead to the shared garden. The parlor level also has a terrace that leads to the lower level.
"It's not super unique to have necessarily a small terrace or a balcony on the parlor floor, but for you to be able to walk out onto it and then walk downstairs to access the garden below is pretty unique and pretty special," Larson said.
To see more photos of Bob Dylan's former NYC home, head to Business Insider.
