The Current

Great Music Lives Here ®
Listener-Supported Music
Donate Now
Local Current Blog

For sale: Bob Dylan’s childhood bathroom sink

Bob Dylan's childhood bathroom sink (dylancountry/eBay)
Bob Dylan's childhood bathroom sink (dylancountry/eBay)

by Simone Cazares

February 20, 2019

While fans of popular artists have been known to sell all sorts of things that once belonged to their idols, a very unusual Bob Dylan item is currently for sale — a bathroom sink.

Growing up in Hibbing, Minn., a young Bob Dylan, then Bobby Zimmerman, and his brother David used the sink in their childhood home.

Linda Stroback is the co-owner of Zimmy's, a Hibbing restaurant that thought of itself as an unofficial Bob Dylan museum, celebrating its hometown hero from 1985 to 2013. Stroback obtained the bathroom sink from the Marlot family, who had owned the former Zimmerman home and kept the sink in their backyard for years after remodeling the bathroom in the late '60s and early '70s. When Stroback got the sink from them, she was surprised by how good of a condition it was in.

"We found this sink with its original faucet handles still intact and with the marks where a water glass was placed, time and time again," Stroback writes in the sale listing. "It is all original, except, for a small front portion of the sink that has been professionally restored."

The bathroom sink is for sale on eBay with a current bid of $4,000, and Stroback hopes it will go to a good home.

"This period sink from Bob Dylan’s Hibbing residence is a unique piece of American history, with great provenance (letter from Angel Marolt included), and needs to find the right collector/individual, who understands the importance of it."

Simone Cazares is a student at St. Catherine University. Originally from Miami, Fla., she survives Minnesota’s cruel winters by immersing herself in the Twin Cities music scene.

Clean Water Land & Legacy Amendment
This activity is made possible in part by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.