Kurt Cobain’s childhood home is now a historic landmark, Washington officials say

The childhood home of one of Washington’s most noteworthy musicians has officially been deemed a historic landmark, officials said.

Kurt Cobain, the lead singer and guitarist of grunge band Nirvana, grew up in Aberdeen before reaching stardom in the early 1990s, according to the Washington Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation.

The Cobain house

The one-and-a-half story house on 1210 E. First St. has been added to the state’s list of landmarks because it “is directly connected to specific activities or events which had a lasting impact on the community or region,” according to the Washington Heritage Register.

It is also because, according to the register, the property is “directly associated with an individual who made an important contribution to a community or to a group of people.”

Officially listed as “The Donald and Wendy Cobain House,” the home was built in about 1923 and the Cobain family moved in in 1968, after Kurt Cobain was born on Feb. 20, 1967.

“It was here that the young blue eyed, blond-haired, energetic young boy with unusual artistic skills, and a widely creative imagination, garnered his passion for music,” the register reads.

Although Cobain briefly moved to Montesano with his father after his parents’ divorce, he moved back into the house on First Street at age 14 and continued to blossom musically.

The home remained in the Cobain family for five decades before Cobain’s mother and sister sold it in 2018.

Cobain’s rise to fame

Cobain dropped out of high school shortly before his senior graduation and went on to live a “nomadic life” in 1984 and 1985, sometimes sleeping in a cardboard box on Dale Crover’s — the drummer of the local punk band the Melvins — porch in Aberdeen, according to the register.

Nirvana was formed in 1988 after Cobain and his fellow band members moved to Olympia, the register reads.

The band began to make headway in Seattle’s music scene after the release of its first track, “Love Buzz.” The band went on to release its first album, “Bleach,” after signing with Sub Pop Records in 1989.

Two years later, the hit record ”Nevermind” was released on Sept. 24, 1991, according to Nirvana’s website. The album reached certified gold status less than a month later.

In 1993, the band released its final album, ”In Utero,” as Cobain privately struggled with drug addiction, according to the register.

Cobain was found dead at the age of 27 in “an area above his detached garage” in Seattle on April 8, 1994, the register said.

“Author Rick Lyon (Hardrock) wrote about the impact of Nirvana: ‘A truly seismic shift in popular culture happened but no one involved had any idea that what they were doing would fundamentally change the world, spelling the commercial death of an entire musical genre and usher in what was the last true rock ‘n’ roll youth movement,’” according to the register.

This story was originally published August 2, 2021 at 3:23 PM with the headline "Kurt Cobain’s childhood home is now a historic landmark, Washington officials say."