161 West 4th Street — Bob Dylan's First New York Apartment
Dylan's first leased apartment in New York, where he lived with Suze Rotolo and began writing original songs in late 1961
Notable years: 1961–1963
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What happened here?
The Apartment
This walk-up at 161 West 4th Street was Bob Dylan's first leased apartment in New York City. He moved in during late 1961 and lived in the cramped space with his girlfriend Suze Rotolo. It was here that Dylan began making the shift from folk interpreter to original songwriter, working on the material that would appear on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.
Don Hunstein from the Freewheelin' photo session
Dylan and Rotolo
Dylan and Rotolo's relationship — documented most famously on the Freewheelin' cover, shot a few blocks away on Jones Street — was central to his development as a songwriter during this period. The apartment on West 4th Street was where much of that early work took shape, in the heart of the Greenwich Village folk scene.
Visiting Today
161 West 4th Street is a private residential building in Greenwich Village. It is not open to visitors. The surrounding neighbourhood — West 4th Street, Bleecker, MacDougal — remains the centre of Dylan's early New York geography.
While You're in New York
The Freewheelin' album cover location is just around the corner on Jones Street. Nearby you'll also find 160 Bleecker Street, where Dylan wrote A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, The Bitter End on Bleecker Street, the Highway 61 Revisited album cover stairs, and the White Horse Tavern.
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