Fire Damages Eminem’s Detroit Childhood Home

The childhood home of rapper Eminem, which is pictured on the cover of his latest album The Marshall Mathers LP 2, was damaged in a fire Thursday evening.

The small brick bungalow, located on Dresden Street, just south of 8 Mile Road in East Detroit, was boarded up and apparently uninhabited. Portions of the top floor were ruined in the blaze. The Detroit Fire Department, who responded at around 6:20 p.m., have not yet identified a cause or source of the fire.

According to local news, the bungalow sits on a untended weed-covered lot, and is surrounded by similar homes that are mostly vacant. The neighborhood, once thriving, is now described as "rough" by officials.

In addition to his latest album, released Nov. 5, Eminem chose to feature the house on his 2000 release The Marshall Mathers LP, which sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and is widely regarded by critics as one of the best hip hop albums in history.

The home, which was purchased by Eminem's mother Debbie Nelson in 1987, has gone through many owners and at least two foreclosures over the years. Nelson originally purchased it for $19,900, agreeing to pay the couple who owned it $3,000 down and $220 a month.

The current value of the home according to real estate site Zillow is around $33k, but it appears nobody has wanted to take on the property for a while. It was most recently put up for auction in September by the Michigan Land Bank, a government-run program which handles vacant properties in the area.