The house Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain grew up in – complete with his mattress – has been put on the market by his family.
To help sell it, Cobain’s mother, Wendy O’Connor, has offered a glimpse into the early life of her tortured and talented son through photographs of him taken at the house.
One shows the young Cobain with a chocolate-frosted birthday cake. In another he is sat in a large, wooden chair, playing a piano.
The teenage Cobain is also seen smiling, guitar in hand, in his messy room, as well as opening up what appear to be birthday presents on a sofa.
His room still has the stencil-like band names of Iron Maiden and Led Zeppelin he put on the walls, as well as a hole in one where he punched it as a teen, almost breaking his hand.
The 1.5-storey bungalow, which is located two hours southwest of Seattle, is being sold by The Agency, a California-based luxury real estate firm.
The 1923 structure, which has a backyard and garage, is on East 1st Street in Aberdeen, a former timber town at the mouth of the Chehalis River, near the southwest Washington coast.
The garage is where Cobain and Krist Novoselic – the bassist and co-founder of Nirvana – used to practise when they first got a band together in the late 1980s.
The musician described his early childhood in Aberdeen as happy, as author Charles R Cross noted in his Cobain biography, Heavier Than Heaven. He would ride his bike around the small yard and pound on a set of Mickey Mouse drums bought by his parents.
“It’s a place where he had very fond memories, but it’s the house where his parents got divorced,” Cross said in an interview. “He couldn’t wait to get away, but it’s a place that helped shape who he became.”
Cobain lived in about 20 houses in his life, Cross said, and this is not the first one offered for sale based on its connection to rock history.
In 2002, an Oregon couple bought a home in nearby Montesano for $42,500 (£25,500). When they learned that Cobain had lived there with his father from the age of 11 to 15, they sold it for $210,000 (£131,000).
The Aberdeen house, last assessed at less than $67,000 (£42,000) is being listed for $500,000 (£312,000), and is a short walk from Kurt Cobain Memorial Park that the town dedicated to the late Nirvana star’s memory.
His family said they would welcome a partnership to make the home into a museum, and would be willing to share a few select copies of some photographs of Cobain in the house with the buyer.
“We’ve decided to sell the home to create a legacy for Kurt, and yes, there are some mixed feelings since we have all loved the home and it carries so many great memories,” said Cobain’s sister, Kim Cobain.
“But our family has moved on from Washington, and (we) feel it’s time to let go of the home.”
According to the estate agent, Cobain lived in the bungalow from when he was a few months old until he was nine, when his parents separated, and then again from the age of 16 until he was about 20 with his mother.
“The home is still largely preserved, with many belongings of Kurt’s still in place,” says the website.
The heroin-addicted Cobain committed suicide in Seattle in 1994, at the age of 27, after a meteoric music career.
This month marks the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s final studio album, In Utero, which came out in September 1993. Universal Music Group has released a re-mastered version and a “super deluxe” box set to mark the occasion.