Following the assassination of her husband, President John F. Kennedy, in Dallas in 1963, Jackie Kennedy moved back to New York City to raise their young children, Caroline and John Jr.
Just before her 35th birthday, the former first lady bought a penthouse apartment at 1040 Fifth Avenue overlooking Central Park in July 1964, and she lived there for 30 years until she died of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in May 1994.
Jackie paid around $200,000, and $14,000 annually in maintenance fees, for the 5,382-square-foot apartment, which occupies the entire top floor of the 15-story building.
While she lived there, it boasted five bedrooms, five and a half baths, a kitchen and wine room, a dining room, a conservatory, a library, a living room, two terraces and three fireplaces, according to the Observer.
Before she relocated, Jackie and her children briefly lived in a historic mansion in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., but the lack of privacy due to the constant presence of fans outside the home spurred her Manhattan move, according to reports.
© Getty ImagesJackie lived at her Fifth Avenue apartment for 30 years
Jackie lived in the apartment for the remainder of her life and died in her sleep on May 18, 1994, one day after returning from the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, where she had been undergoing chemotherapy for her cancer, which was announced in early 1994 and progressed rapidly.
The apartment didn’t remain a shrine to Jackie, however, as one year after her death, it was bought for $9.5 million by billionaire businessman David Koch, who completely overhauled the interiors.
© Getty ImagesJackie’s library featured pink wallpaper and equestrian paintings
“Mrs. Onassis was very conservative financially, and she didn’t spend much on it,” David told the Observer in June 2006. “We gutted the apartment and redid everything.”
David later came to regret his decision to redecorate after Sotheby’s auctioned off Jackie’s furniture, art, and antiques collection two years after she died in a four-day sale that made $34.5 million, over seven times its $4.6 million estimate.
© Getty ImagesJackie on one of the two terraces at her NYC penthouse
“If I knew what Jackie’s possessions would fetch at Sotheby’s, I would have taken the place furnished,” David remarked in a 1998 article in The New York Times.
The auction sold more than 40,000 items from Jackie’s estate, including faux pearls that sold for over $100,000 and JFK’s golf clubs, which sold for $800,000.Â
© Getty ImagesJackie lived at at 1040 Fifth Avenue
Most of the money from the auction sale reportedly went back to Jackie’s estate to cover taxes. Jackie’s children are also said to have received around $2.5 million, which they planned to donate to the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation in Boston, the White House Historical Association, and the American Ballet Theater.
© Getty ImagesA wood drafting table and artists brushes belonging to Jackie that were on sale at the Sotheby’s auction
David owned the apartment for just over a decade before he sold it for a reported $32 million in 2006 to hedge-fund manager Glenn Dubin.
“As much as I love the old Jackie Onassis apartment, it wasn’t large enough,” he explained to the Observer as his reason for selling the iconic property.