Walt Disney Television/Paula LoboOn her new album Lover, Taylor Swift has a song called “Cornelia Street,” about falling in love at the same time she was renting an apartment on the New York street of that name. But at the time, it appears she didn’t make much of an impression on her landlord.
In the tune, which is seemingly about the early days of her relationship with Joe Alwyn, Taylor sings, “‘I rent a place on Cornelia Street,’ I say casually in the car.” She later adds that if they ever broke up she’d “never walk Cornelia Street again.”
While Swifties might now end up making pilgrimages to the street, the owner of Taylor’s old apartment admits to Vulture he didn’t even know who she was when he first showed her the place in 2016.
“I’m afraid to tell you this, but I will tell you this: I really didn’t know her,” said start-up consultant David Aldea.
“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,’” he explains. “Now, mind you, I knew her songs because I had them on my running playlist. I just didn’t match the name to the song. I know, it’s silly.”
He recalls that Taylor immediately fell in love with the home and asked to rent it, along with all his furniture and décor. The place had several private outdoor spaces and Taylor references the roof in her song.
“She was probably talking about the outdoor space off her master bedroom, because I had that set up as sort of an outdoor living room,” Aldea says.
Taylor moved out in 2017, but Aldea says he’s “honored” that she wrote a song immortalizing her time there.
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