For an evening to a month at a time, at prices ranging from about $70 to $4,200 a night, online rental platforms offer anyone a chance to live in places where legends like F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck and Frank Sinatra once lived.
These homes are as different as the celebrities they once housed, but until recently their appeal has been relatively consistent. Many renters have raced to temporarily live in these places for moments of reflected glory, to pay homage to, and draw inspiration from, the life of a beloved star. Most, however, have merely enjoyed the fact that an already attractive rental possessed the added luster of a celebrity association.
The typical renter of these houses has changed considerably, however, as coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on the short-term rental industry. Whereas before the pandemic, guests usually booked their stays months in advance for planned vacations — often coming from abroad — now bookings are often arranged at the last minute by those within driving distance simply looking for a pleasant spot to shelter in place.
Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes
Consider Big Pink, a modest house considered hallowed ground by some rock ‘n’ roll enthusiasts. Nestled on a quiet dirt road about 100 miles north of New York City, in the wooded village of West Saugerties sits a home with pastel siding, precious to music historians ever since members of The Band rented and wrote music there from 1967 to early 1968. In addition to composing much of their seminal debut album “Music From Big Pink” in the house, the musicians famously recorded “The Basement Tapes” with Bob Dylan in — where else — the basement. Both albums are considered to be among the artists’ most influential works.
Donald LaSala, Big Pink’s current owner, bought the home in 1998 as a second home, but didn’t start renting it out for short-term stays until 2014, when online rental platforms gained popularity and the “Catskills boom” turned the house into a local tourist attraction. “We never wanted it to be a ‘Dylan Disneyland,’” Mr. LaSala said. “It’s always been a living house in nature where creatives can retreat and we try to present it that way.”
Available to rent for about $550 a night with a two-night minimum on Vrbo, Mr. LaSala said that, until recently, most guests booked a stay at Big Pink because of its history, and the nostalgia it evokes. Its renters were a mix of what Mr. LaSala describes as “Dylanologists,” fans of The Band, musicians looking for inspiration, and the hosts of high school and college reunions or family gatherings. “Most visitors had a memory associated with the music. The house looks the same as it did on the album cover. Nothing is the same as it was in 1967, except for Big Pink.”
Pre-coronavirus, the house was booked for months, and in some cases, years in advance. However, beginning in March, nearly all of LaSala’s bookings were canceled through August. “The pandemic hit us hard,” he said. Fortunately, his typical guests were quickly replaced by a new variety. “Most people were flying in from somewhere else to stay at Big Pink, but for the first time, we had renters from New York City who just needed a place to stay.”
The Rubber House
Dan Ross and Adele Robbins, who live in London, have had a similar experience with the Rubber House — a property they purchased in 2012 in Accord, N.Y., a scenic hamlet in the Hudson Valley — that has its own noted cultural history. Designed in 1981 by Tom Pritchard for the famed choreographer Eugene Loring, the house is both an architectural gem, and the former home of the Academy Award-winning actor Willem Dafoe, who owned the house from 1988 to 2008.
Built among five massive boulder formations, the two-bedroom property is partly encased by sheets of neoprene, enabling it to blend into its surroundings while providing superior interior sound quality for musicians. The light-filled house has glass walls, a chef’s kitchen and Loring’s original dance studio, complete with 20-foot, sky-lighted ceilings, mirrored walls and a ballet barre.
Drawn by its dance studio, Mr. Ross and Ms. Robbins, a professional ballerina, bought the house in 2012 as a vacation home. Then, however, Mr. Ross said, “word got out about this crazy rubber house. It just really captured people’s imaginations, and since we couldn’t live there full-time we wanted to share it. Artists, musicians, designers, photographers, and filmmakers from around the world would borrow it for creative retreats.”
In 2013, they began listing the house on vacation rental sites for short-term stays. Today, the Rubber House is available for weekly rentals, starting at $2,500 a week, with reduced pricing for additional weeks. Previously available for a three-night minimum, the owners saw the pandemic as a chance to transition to longer short-term stays while simultaneously weeding out any renters who weren’t interested in the artistic integrity of the property. “To my knowledge, no one has ever rented the property because Willem Dafoe previously owned it,” Mr. Ross said. “However, we’ve had teenagers knock at the door looking for him.”
Scott and Zelda
In Montgomery, Ala., in 1987, Julian McPhillips, a civil rights attorney and a great admirer of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s work, purchased a home the writer shared with his wife, Zelda, and their daughter, Frances. The couple rented the house from 1931 to 1932, and wrote parts of their novels — his “Tender Is The Night,” her “Save Me The Waltz” — while living there. Mr. McPhillips rescued the house from demolition, and converted its ground floor into The Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald Museum, the only museum dedicated to the tumultuous Jazz Age pair.
The house sits among some of Montgomery’s most distinguished cultural institutions, less than three miles from The National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Rosa Parks Museum. On the ground floor, visitors can browse memorabilia, including original artwork by Ms. Fitzgerald. The F. Scott Suite, whose living room features original palm leaf-printed wallpaper, can be rented through Airbnb for around $73 a night, while The Zelda Suite, outfitted with a sofa donated by the family of one of Ms. Fitzgerald’s friends, is available for about $82 a night. “A lot of couples will rent both suites, and stay in one for a week and then move to the other,” said Alaina Doten, who manages rentals for the property and serves as the executive director of the museum.
Before coronavirus hit, most renters were couples or bridal parties drawn by the Fitzgerald connection, or international tourists interested in Montgomery’s rich cultural history. However, Ms. Doten says there’s recently been a shift in the type of guests who book the property. “We’re seeing a lot of concerned travelers, passing from one place to another who feel the suites are safer than a hotel. Each suite has its own kitchen, so guests can bring their own groceries and cook, which is a big pull right now.”
Steinbeck Country
A similar phenomenon has been noted by Kevin and Vickey Delaney, who in 2012, bought the former home and writing studio of Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck in Pacific Grove, Calif., a coastal city in Monterey County. Originally built in 1913, the property is just a few blocks away from the cottage where Steinbeck spent summers as a child, and where he began writing his book “Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research” with Ed Ricketts from 1941 to 1943. Steinbeck wrote frequently about the home, especially its garden, in letters to loved ones.
The Delaneys bought the residence, now subdivided into three smaller cottages, with the intention of converting it into a short-term rental property. “We love history and literature, and are avid Steinbeck fans,” Mr. Delaney said. “We were looking for a family unit from a rental perspective and found this charming property with an impressive footnote.”
All three cottages, including the 350-square foot writing studio with direct views of the garden, are available to rent on Airbnb starting at $70 a night. Because of the city’s short-term rental regulations, the Delaneys had to enforce a 30-night minimum stay pre-Covid. “We immediately began attracting retired travelers, often from another country like Canada, who were booking a month or more at a time, as well as writers looking for an inspiring place to work,” Mr. Delaney said.
The historic property, prominently marketed as Steinbeck’s former home, has also drawn its fair share of hard-core fans. “The house is on the Pacific Grove walking tour and sometimes people linger at the front gate,” Mr. Delaney said. “This is Steinbeck country; they can’t believe they’re standing at John Steinbeck’s house.”
With the pandemic, Mr. Delaney says renters have been less concerned with the home’s history and more interested in securing a snug space to hunker down. “There’s been a steady population of traveling nurses and people coming to stay near family,” Mr. Delaney said. “We’re booking months at a time, so comfortably sheltering in place is a big factor for renters.”
The Rat Pack
This is likewise the case at the Twin Palms Estate, Frank Sinatra’s storied, swinging Palm Springs pad. In 1947, Sinatra hired the architect E. Stewart Williams to build the 4,500-square-foot midcentury showplace after spotting the land, and an especially lovely pair of palm trees, from an airplane. The entire estate, including its iconic grand piano-shaped pool and a recording studio, is available for starting at $2,500 a night (up to $4,219 a night in high season), for a three-night minimum, through Natural Retreats.
The owners, Tom and Marianne O’Connell, bought the property in 2009, after renting it for their own short-term stay. “They’re Rat Pack fans,” said Dann Richey, who manages the estate for Natural Retreats. “They were about to retire and saw it both as a vacation home and a business opportunity.”
Of course, Twin Palms attracts those drawn to its remarkable (and stormy) cultural history — a crack in the original primary bathroom’s sink is rumored to be the result of Ava Gardner throwing a champagne bottle at Mr. Sinatra after discovering his tryst with Lana Turner while Gardner was away on location — but it also summons its fair share of design and architecture buffs. In the past, guests have been “a solid mix of international Sinatra devotees and people interested in the desert modernist architecture of the mansion,” said Mr. Richey. “We’ve had requests for the staff to all be wearing Rat Pack-style fedoras when guests arrive, as well as ones that are solely interested in the mansion as a midcentury architectural masterpiece.”
But while business at the Twin Palms Estates has remained steady throughout the pandemic, the profile of the typical renter has changed. “Currently, people are coming from areas within driving distance of Palm Springs, such as the Bay Area and Nevada, and instead of staying three days at a time, are staying up to a week,” Mr. Richey said. “I think the initial draw is Sinatra, but in the end, it’s just an extraordinary place to escape for a few days.”
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