“‘I rent a place on Cornelia Street,’ I say casually in the car,” go the lyrics of Taylor Swift’s 2019 hit. But the townhouse where the pop superstar wrote ‘Cornelia Street’, forever cementing the address into music history, is anything but casual. The four-story, 5,500-square-foot, four-bedroom home in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village is currently listed for $45,000 per month, with celebrity-worthy features including a drive-in garage and indoor pool.
The property’s then-owner, former Soho House executive David Aldea, admitted he had no idea who Taylor Swift was when he rented the singer the home that would eventually serve as a muse for the song back in 2016 while her Tribeca residence was under renovation.
“I really didn’t know her,” he told New York Magazine. “I’m just not a pop-culture guy, and I even said to someone, ‘I’m meeting a person named Taylor Swift who wants to rent my home.’” Nevertheless, it was a match made in real estate heaven. “She walked in, and I’ll never forget this—she said, ‘Oooh, it’s so crafty,’” said Aldea. “And in Taylor-speak, that means ‘I like everything.’”
The property at 23 Cornelia Street has a history that stems back long before its most famous inhabitant. Built in 1870 as a carriage house, Aldea bought the Gilded Age home and transformed it into a pinnacle of modern luxury. The home’s unsuspecting classic brick facade and antique barn-door entry give way to a contemporary urban retreat with dramatic double-height ceilings. Sunlight streams throughout the property, courteously of floor-to-ceiling windows and a massive skylight.
The pool is attached to the living room, where guests can lounge in front of the gas fireplace and open the doors out to an exterior patio beyond. Each of the third-floor suites features its own private terrace, one of which overlooks Cornelia Street. There’s even more outdoor space upstairs on the rooftop terrace, which has a gas fireplace and outdoor lounge for summer evening barbecues or songwriting sessions.
While there has been much speculation among Taylor’s fans over who the ‘Cornelia Street’ ballad is about, a tour inside the home on Corcoran’s TikTok account shows that the property is enough to inspire a love song all on its own. There is one downside to renting the famous house, though: the hordes of Taylor Swift fans clamoring for a peek at the iconic property at all times of the day, especially when their favorite artist is in the headlines.
