For Sale: The SoHo Building Where John Lennon and Yoko Ono Once Lived
The building, at 496 Broome Street, was the first home in New York City that the couple owned and is now listed by Sean Ono Lennon and his mother for $5.5 million. A two-story, red brick structure, with decorative checkerboard glass squares on the facade.
One of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s first homes in New York City was a two-story building at 496 Broome Street in SoHo.
It was the first New York City home they owned, shortly after the breakup of the Beatles. In the fall of 1971 — two years before moving to the famed Dakota apartment house on the Upper West Side — John Lennon and Yoko Ono had settled downtown, buying a petite loft-style building at 496 Broome Street in SoHo. At the time, Lennon had just released his second solo studio album, “Imagine.”
Upon relocating to New York, Lennon began forging his own identity with Ms. Ono, an avant-garde artist, musician and peace activist, while publicly distancing himself from his former bandmate Paul McCartney, with whom he had created some of the 20th century’s most popular songs.
“He thought New York was a place where he could be left alone,” said Philip Norman, the author of the biography “John Lennon: The Life.” “It really did seem like freedom — freedom from the Beatles. It was a very miserable life being a Beatle.”
Source: Vivian Marino/nytimes.com
