Hey! Ho! Let’s go! You can buy Joey Ramone’s lifelong loft apartment in Manhattan’s East Village for $575,000.
The 400-square-foot dwelling may be tiny, but it’s crammed with history — literally. The previous owner is leaving behind a stack of Ramone’s papers found shoved behind kitchen cabinets — including fan mail, scribbled lyrics and copies of reviews. Curbed first reported on the unique listing.
Joey Ramone, born Jeffrey Ross Hyman, occupied the East 9th Street home from the heyday of the Ramones until his death in 2001. The one-bedroom studio was listed last week by James McGrath, a real estate agent at Yoreevo.
Ramone’s south-facing studio was renovated under the previous owner, who bought the place in 2018 from Joey’s brother, Mitchel Hyman, for $452,000. The residence boasts a brand-new kitchen and an upgraded bathroom.
That gut renovation, most notably, unearthed long-forgotten bills, letters and scribbles belonging to Ramone that were wedged behind kitchen cabinets. McGrath told The Post that the stack ranges from Ramone’s Con-Ed bills to a more “significant” series of letters that document the cancellation of Ramone’s performance at Boston University in 1987.
Ramone kept a photocopy of the administration’s initial rejection, citing problems with crowd control at the student union: “[…] the Ramones attract a particular audience and atmosphere that may also be considered inappropriate in the space.”
Another letter, addressed to the band members by name, is from the zealous student who tried to organize the event: “Little did I know that the administration of this school is stuck somewhere in Victorian times where bands such as the Ramones are seen as sound, obnoxious drug-addicts!” he wrote.
The student lists out the administration’s objections, “in an effort to highlight for you what kind of idiots make the decisions around here.”
Joey and Marky Ramon would go on to attend a student rally at Boston University in November of 1987, Curbed reported.
The white brick East Village co-op, named the St. Mark, is located just off Astor Place. Other studios there currently list in the $475,000 to $575,000 range. The area, once a bastion of counterculture, is in convenient proximity to Union Square and a new Wegmans.
The Ramones are largely credited with pioneering the punk rock genre in the late ’70s. The founding members attended Forest Hills High School together in Queens and formed the band in 1974. Their debut album two years later, now regarded as one of the greatest punk albums of all time, sold poorly at the time.
The Ramones would go on to perform more than 2,000 concerts and produce 14 studio albums before disbanding in 1996.