As the chief marketing officer for Coldwell Banker Real Estate, one of key benefits to the job is that I have a key to the “secret vault.”  In this case, our vault is a collection of thousands of historic luxury homes that were marketed by Previews, Inc. (now renamed Coldwell Banker Previews International) from the 30’s through the 70’s.

I love the history of homes and spending time in the vault to see what they looked like in the 40’s and then compare it to today.  I love comparing prices from the 40’s to today, which definitely shows that real estate can be a good long term investment!  But I don’t stop there…I google the address and learn more about who owned it, who later bought it and the story behind the land, the house, and the area.

Some notable historic homes found so far in the vault include one owned by the family of Lady Di and a 17 acre farm that was listed in 1936 and became “the Busch Campus” at my alma mater, Rutgers University (I took all my classes there!).  I find something new every time I walk into the vault!

So you can imagine my surprise when I was looking at old Manhattan properties and came across a $100,000 listing sheet for a 2 bedroom co-op at 1 West 72nd Street…Apartment #71.  The Dakota.  Nah.  No way.  Maybe it was the Rosemary’s Baby apartment, but no way it was their apartment.  I’m a huge Beatles fan and love John Lennon.  What’s the chance, right, that this was John and Yoko’s?  Is someone playing mind games with me?

So I did a little bit of digging on Google, and found a bunch of articles on the Lennons that talked about their days at the Dakota, and that they lived on the 7th floor.  Ok, now I’m getting a bit anxious.  Chances are getting a bit brighter. So I keep digging…

And then I find this article from feelnumb.com that says John and Yoko initially sublet their first apartment at the Dakota (Apt #70) from actor Robert Ryan and then purchased it sometime after Mr. Ryan’s death in 1973.  That’s the apartment next door to the one in my hand!!!  Oh Yoko!  My now very sweaty hand is shaking…

So I nervously read on…

And there, on page 3, I find that the Lennons owned four additional apartments in the Dakota, “including the next door apartment #71”!!!!!  And that “John recorded many home demos from 1975-1980…in apartment #71”!!!

So for all you Beatle and  John and Yoko fans, here’s the listing doc from 1969 for apartment #71, the Dakota. And BTW, here’s a curbed post about John Madden’s 2 bedroom Dakota apt that is on the market for $3.9M.   That 1969 price was a steal!  Enjoy!

…and more to come from my future explorations into “the vault”…

top image courtesy of feelnumb.com