Bob Dylan lived quietly beside a secret garden in NYC for 20 years. See inside the home, now on sale for $7.25 million.
The NYC townhouse where Bob Dylan lived quietly with his kids from the 1980s to 2005 is for sale.
The enclave, with only 20 homes and a shared garden, remains a favorite haunt of actors and musicians.
It's just a coincidence that the movie about his life is in theaters now, the listing agent said.
A New York City home where Bob Dylan lived quietly for years is for sale.
The legendary singer-songwriter rented the townhouse on East 49th Street in Manhattan in the 1980s — then loved it so much that he bought it under a business associate's name in 1990 for an undisclosed amount.
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.
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.
Dylan, one of the best-selling music artists of all time, 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 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.
Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim called No. 244 home for 60 years until his death in 2021; it sold for $7 million in 2023, according to property records. Katharine Hepburn lived next door, at 244 East 49th Street. Child actor turned fashion designer Mary-Kate Olsen and her ex Olivier Sarkozy owned 226-228 East 49th Street from 2024 to 2022.
The current owners of Dylan's home used it as a pied-à-terre, according to Sotheby's International Realty agent Lisa Larson, who has the listing with her colleague Angela Wu.
"They just weren't coming to New York very often, so they rented it out, and now they've just decided to sell it," Larson told Business Insider.
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.
Larson said that the timing is a happy accident.
"I didn't even know there was a new Bob Dylan movie," Larson said. "It was totally coincidental, because we were just waiting for the last tenant to move out."
Take a look inside Dylan's former house, which has a mix of old-school features and modern amenities, and the secret garden on which it sits.
A house Bob Dylan lived in from the 1980s to 2005 is on the market for $7.25 million.
Starting in the 1980s, Dylan rented the home from a married couple: screenwriter Garson Kanin and his wife, actor Ruth Gordon.
He started out renting, then liked it so much he bought it.
The home is located in a somewhat hidden micro-neighborhood called Turtle Bay Gardens.
"It's got a pretty esteemed history," Larson said. "It has a lot of playwrights, writers, actors, and musicians who have lived in this enclave of 20 homes."
Owners of the 20 townhouses on East 49th and East 48th Streets can access a residents-only shared garden via their private backyards.
Turtle Bay Gardens was named a historic district by New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1966. It was built with a fountain modeled after the Villa Medici in Rome.
"It's got this unique feeling of being this special little enclave in the middle of a whole bunch of hustle and bustle and high rises," Larson said.
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."
According to Larson, Dylan had installed a lot of mirrors around the townhouse that didn't survive the renovation.
The current owners used the home as a pied-à-terre and visited New York City less than five times a year.
The owners had rented out the townhouse for the last year, Larson said.
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.
A unique feature of the home Dylan owned is the brick staircase from the private patio that leads to the shared garden.
"In my opinion, the backyard is one of the prettiest in all of Turtle Bay Gardens because it has that bi-level aspect to it, and just beautiful brickwork and stonework," Larson said.
The five-bedroom, 5½-bathroom home has around 5,400 square feet of interior space.
The library has a fireplace — one of seven in the home.
The archways throughout the five-story home are original. The elevator, though, was added on after Dylan sold.
Larson said the home is 19 feet wide.
"Some 19-footers have elevators and some don't," she added. "Having an elevator is huge."
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