Prince’s Childhood Home

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The Nelsons purchased this home on Eighth Avenue North in March 1965. For the previous seven years they had been living at 915 Logan Avenue North. They kept that house and rented it out. It has since been demolished.

Prince’s musical genius emerged while he was living in this rambler. According to his mother, Mattie Shaw Nelson, Prince could hear music from a young age, but it was in this modest mid-century house that his talent flourished. He mastered the piano by the age of eight and began writing songs. Prince later took up the guitar. He played both instruments in the band he founded with cousin Charles “Chazz” Smith, who lived nearby at 927 Sheridan Avenue North.

When he was about 13--around 1973--Prince moved out. He was trying to escape mounting tensions with his mother and stepfather.