Taylor Swift fans, your chance has come once again to rent a piece of history, especially the Cornelia Street apartment that inspired her Lover song “Cornelia Street”, which includes the lyrics “I’m renting a place on Cornelia Street”.
Swift briefly rented the charming West Village magpie-To-earth starting in 2016, while renovating his huge apartment in Tribeca. It was in this sacred space (originally built as a carriage shed in 1870) where, as Swift sings, she memorized “the creaks of the ground.” The running theory among Swifties is that the song documents Swift’s first romance with her ex Joe Alwyn.
In the song, Swift reveals that “if you ever walk away, I’ll never walk Cornelia Street again.” Now, a month after the couple split, the apartment is back in the spotlight as its realtor advertises in TMZ. All of this can be yours, for $45,000 a month.
That’s Swift’s lot in life, so to speak. Just like everything celebrities do these days, real estate is the subject of constant reports. At a time when many millennials have lingering memories of the marathon Cradles now spend their time browsing Zillow wistfully, real estate is also a celebrity brand.
Swift’s notoriously lavish property portfolio, which the the wall street journal grossing $150 million earlier this year — has helped tell its story for more than a decade. They have helped define its aesthetic and become part of its tradition. Over the years, the singer has woven her homes and their own stories into her music and, conversely, has used her real estate purchases to weave herself into their stories as well.
From the start of her career, Swift’s so-called “authenticity” has been at the heart of her critics’ skepticism, and wealth has long helped sow that mistrust. Despite the “downtrodden” narrative the singer cultivated early in her career, some critics have pointed out that she was born with a lot of money: her mother is a former marketing executive and her father a Merrill stockbroker. Lynch, descends from three generations. bank presidents, according to New Yorker. A well-titled post from 2016 by The ring asked, “When did you first realize Taylor Swift was lying to you?”
It should come as no surprise, given her family background, that as Swift’s album sales increased, she began putting some of that money into real estate investments.
Beverly Hills (and Nashville): This is where Taylor wants to be
Always industrious, Swift made her first purchase at age 20, when the the wall street journal reports that she bought her Nashville condo on Nashville’s Music Row for $2.377 million in 2009.
Swift cobbled together her 5,000-square-foot starter home by buying two units — a construction company she would later return to, much to the dismay of some of her Tribeca neighbors years later.
The eye-catching abode, seen in Swift’s 2020 Netflix documentary miss american, was essentially the godmother of grand millennial design. Swift’s taste for something “different from everywhere else I see” – described by journalist Jody Rosen for Vulture as a “stunning cacophony of patterned wallpapers and fabrics” – predicted current interior design trends towards all things vintage and maximalist and helped solidify its approachable, slightly quirky brand of girls.
As Swift chose tiles and wallpapers in 2009, she described her decorating instincts as “eccentric, eclectic treehouse.” Four years later, Rosen described the final product as a “Shabby-Chic Alice in Wonderland”.
In 2010, Swift’s star soared with Speak Now– which defied declining album sales trends and sold 1,047,000 copies in the United States in its first week. Swift’s album triumph also ushered in a new chapter in her real estate story. We’ll call 2011 his “I’ve arrived” era.
That year, Swift bought her first home in Beverly Hills. In keeping with her dream proto-cottagecore brand, Swift managed to find perhaps the only Cape Cod-style home in 90210 for $3.55 million, the Log reports. Swift also bought a $2.5 million mansion for her parents in 2011, a Greek Revival structure called “the Northumberland Estate.” (Our Tay-Tay really likes her idiosyncratic architectural styles!) A year later, Swift dropped an additional $1.775 million for a second home in Beverly Hills to use for guests, you know, like we do.
When Swift finally welcomed vogue home for a series of “73 questions” in 2016, she did it at her Beverly Hills estate. The wallpaper was out in full force, and apparently T-Swift keeps a VMA trophy next to his coffee maker. The garden? Stunning. Accents look like a throwback to when Pier 1 was he for suburban interior decoration, and the lighting is warm and comfortable. Everything was perfectly organized and everything screamed “Taylor Swift”.
Together, the Nashville and Beverly Hills properties boosted Swift’s buying power and demonstrated what her savvy fans and critics already knew: She wasn’t going anywhere.
Taylor in and out of Cape Cod
Then came the time when Swift dated a Kennedy. In August 2012, months before the release of his hit album Red and six weeks into her relationship with Conor Kennedy, Swift bought a $4.9 million home on Cape Cod across from the Kennedy resort. In the book The Kennedy Heirsa friend of Conor said buying Swift made him nervous: “It sounded like she was getting a little too attached, spending five million dollars on a house just to be around the guy.”
Discussions about Swift’s love life were most prevalent at the time Red made its debut. By then she had dated a string of A-listers, including Jake Gyllenhaal, John Mayer, Taylor Lautner and Harry Styles, and incorporated several of them into some of her best songs.
In retrospect, Swift’s brief stint in the Cape Cod beach house — and the discussion surrounding it — feels like a relic of the bygone era before “Blank Space,” when gossip about her relationships was as rampant as reviews of his music. In the end, however, Swift had the final say on this one; as fast as she sold her coastal pad, she still walked away with a profit of $870,000.
Miss “Taymerica”
Perhaps the most pivotal real estate investment of Swift’s career to date came in 2013, when she bought her Rhode Island mansion for $17.75 million. This would become the scene of the tradition that defines the “Taymerica” brand. The annual 4th of July event made headlines in 2014, thanks in part to the rise of Swift’s “Girl Squad.”
It was the era of “Bad Blood”, madmaxstylish costumes and power in girlbossy numbers. The “Girl Squad” was Swift at her most controversial, and Taymerica was her nexus. Lena Dunham was on deck at Taymerica 2014, as was Gossip Girl star Jessica Szohr, Emma Stone, Andrew Garfield, “You & I” singer Ingrid Michaelson and Swift’s The donor co-starring Odeya Rush.
The parties were, in a way, Swift’s armor against the constant chatter of her critics – photographic evidence that some people, at least, liked him, Thanks a lot!
Swift’s Rhode Island home, also called Holiday House, was built in 1930 and is the tallest on Watch Hill, making it the perfect backdrop for enviable storytelling shows. It was here in 2016 that we saw Tom Hiddleston in an “I <3 TS" t-shirt - and also a completely miserable looking Ryan Reynolds on the porch.
The Rhode Island estate may hold deeper meaning for Swift than any other property in her portfolio. The house’s former owner, high-society socialite, philanthropist and artist Rebekah Harkness inspired Swift’s folklore song “The Last Great American Dynasty”. The song draws parallels between the scrutiny Swift and her pals received while at Holiday House and the judgment Harnkess drew in her time.
Welcome to New York
Long before folklore, however, came Swift’s Manhattan girl phase. (Remember when she got a new job as a tourist ambassador and welcomed herself to New York?) In the spring of 2014, Swift rode the cold breeze and dropped $19.9 million on two penthouses. in the Sugar Loaf building in Tribeca. (Her cat Meredith Gray seemed to adore the view.) Together, the penthouses, which were previously owned by the Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson—total of 8,018 square feet. It was from this abode that Swift once emerged in a large box.
THE Log reports that in 2017, Swift expanded her Tribeca real estate portfolio by purchasing an additional $18 million townhouse and, later, an adjacent $9.75 million apartment. When Swift bought the apartment, some neighbors in the neighborhood expressed their irritation with the New York Post. “Franklin Street has a history of being a construction apocalypse,” a source said. “When even one lane is blocked, it can cause chaos.”
Nonetheless, she persisted.
Taylor goes to Hollywood
Then, it was time for the Swift big shot: In 2014, the rumor started circulating that Swift was looking forward to her big screen debut and an Oscar. She had auditioned for Tom Hooper’s Wretched— which debuted in 2013 — and Twilight: New Moon Director Chris Weitz said last year that she had also requested a role in the 2009 vampire film Talking With The Philadelphia plaintiff in 2012, Swift claimed she had been reading scripts for five years and was also working with an acting coach.
Cue Swift’s MGM era – otherwise known as the time she bought the Old Hollywood estate that legendary Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer built for $25 million, restored and refurbished certified as a historical monument.
Also in 2014, Swift released a dreamy video for her 1989 single “Wildest Dreams” – which nods to the 1953 MGM romance Mogambo alongside other influences.
Swift sold her first two Beverly Hills homes in 2018 and made a profit on each, the Log reports. One of the estates had faced multiple security incidents before the sale.
In 2016, while building her Tribeca penthouse(s), Swift began renting the Cornelia Street apartment. She weathered part of the pandemic in Primrose Hill with Joe Alwyn, but Manhattan seems to have captured more of their shine. The singer’s lore is so powerful that following her split from Joe Alwyn, fans paid a visit to the building where she no longer lives in remembrance. Swift may never walk Cornelia Street again, but her fans likely will for years to come, just like anyone else who can cough up the five-figure rental price.