The Dakota is a cooperative apartment building located on the northwest corner of 72nd Street
and Central Park West in the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Constructed
between October 25, 1880 and October 27, 1884, the building is known as the home of former
Beatle John Lennon from 1973 to 1980 as well as the location of his murder. The Dakota
is considered to be one of Manhattan's most prestigious and exclusive cooperative residential
buildings, with apartments generally selling for between $4 million and $30 million.
The architectural firm of Henry Janeway Hardenbergh was commissioned to create the design for
Edward Clark, head of the Singer Sewing Machine Company. The firm also designed the Plaza
Hotel. The building's high gables and deep roofs
with a profusion of dormers, terracotta spandrels and panels, niches, balconies, and balustrades
give it a North German Renaissance character, an echo of a Hanseatic townhall. Nevertheless,
its layout and floor plan betray a strong influence of French architectural trends in
housing design that had become known in New York in the 1870s.
The Dakota was purportedly so named because at the time of construction, the Upper West
Side of Manhattan was sparsely inhabited and considered as remote in relation to the inhabited
area of Manhattan as the Dakota Territory was. However, the earliest recorded appearance
of this account is in a 1933 newspaper interview with the Dakota's long-time manager, quoted
in Christopher Gray's book New York Streetscapes: "Probably it was called 'Dakota' because it
was so far west and so far north". According to Gray, it is more likely that the building
was named the Dakota because of Clark's fondness for the names of the new western states and
territories. High above the 72nd Street entrance, the figure of a Dakota Indian keeps watch.
The Dakota was designated a New York City Landmark in 1969. The building was added to
the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, and was designated as a National Historic
Landmark in 1976.
Features
The Dakota is square, built around a central courtyard. The arched main entrance is a porte
cochère large enough for the horse-drawn carriages that once entered and allowed passengers
to disembark sheltered from the weather. Many of these carriages were housed in a multi-story
stable building built in two sections, 1891–94, at the southwest corner of 77th Street and
Amsterdam Avenue, where elevators lifted them to the upper floors. The "Dakota Stables"
building was in operation as a garage until February 2007, when it was slated to be transformed
by the Related Companies into a condominium residence. Since then, the large condominium
building The Harrison occupies its spot. The general layout of the apartments is in
the French style of the period, with all major rooms not only connected to each other, in
enfilade, in the traditional way, but also accessible from a hall or corridor, an arrangement
that allows a natural migration for guests from one room to another, especially on festive
occasions, yet gives service staff discreet separate circulation patterns that offer service
access to the main rooms. The principal rooms, such as parlors or the master bedroom, face
the street, while the dining room, kitchen, and other auxiliary rooms are oriented toward
the courtyard. Apartments thus are aired from two sides, which was a relative novelty in
Manhattan at the time. Some of the drawing rooms are 49 ft long, and many of the ceilings
are 14 ft high; the floors are inlaid with mahogany, oak, and cherry.
Originally, the Dakota had 65 apartments with four to 20 rooms, no two being alike. These
apartments are accessed by staircases and elevators placed in the four corners of the
courtyard. Separate service stairs and elevators serving the kitchens are located in mid-block.
Built to cater for the well-to-do, the Dakota featured many amenities and a modern infrastructure
that was exceptional for the time. The building has a large dining hall; meals also could
be sent up to the apartments by dumbwaiters. Electricity was generated by an in-house power
plant and the building has central heating. Beside servant quarters, there was a playroom
and a gymnasium under the roof. In later years, these spaces on the tenth floor were converted
into apartments for economic reasons. The Dakota property also contained a garden, private
croquet lawns, and a tennis court behind the building between 72nd and 73rd Streets.
All apartments were let before the building opened, but it was a long-term drain on the
fortune of Clark, who died before it was completed, and his heirs. For the high society of Manhattan,
it became fashionable to live in the building, or at least to rent an apartment there as
a secondary city residence, and the Dakota's success prompted the construction of many
other luxury apartment buildings in Manhattan. An entrance to the 72nd Street station is
outside the building. Death of John Lennon
The Dakota was the home of former Beatle John Lennon from 1973 until his murder. On the
night of December 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman shot Lennon in the Dakota's 72nd Street entryway
as the singer was returning home from a recording session. Lennon was pronounced dead upon arrival
at nearby Roosevelt Hospital. As of 2010, Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, still has several
apartments in the building. The Strawberry Fields memorial was laid out in memory of
Lennon in Central Park directly across Central Park West.
Notable residents
Notable residents of the Dakota building have included:
Lauren Bacall, actress Harley Baldwin, real estate developer and
art dealer Ward Bennett, architect and designer,
Leonard Bernstein, composer and conductor Connie Chung, newscaster
Rosemary Clooney singer, actress Harlan Coben, author
Bob Crewe, songwriter, record producer, artist José Ferrer, actor
Roberta Flack, singer. Flack lives next door to Yoko Ono.
Charles Henri Ford, poet, artist and publisher. Ruth Ford, actress.
Judy Garland, actress Lillian Gish, actress
Paul Goldberger, architecture critic William Inge, playwright
Boris Karloff, actor John Lennon, musician and composer. Lennon
owned five apartments in the Dakota. Sean Lennon, singer
Warner LeRoy, producer and restaurateur John Madden, football coach and commentator.
Madden bought his apartment from Gilda Radner. Frederick S. Mates, financier
Albert Maysles, documentary filmmaker Rudolf Nureyev, dancer
Joe Namath, football player Yoko Ono, artist
Jack Palance, actor Ruth Porat, investment banker
Maury Povich, television host Gilda Radner, comedian
Rex Reed, critic Jason Robards, actor
Jane Rosenthal, film producer Wilbur Ross, financier
Robert Ryan, actor Cesare Siepi, opera singer
Robert C. Silich, MD – plastic surgeon Michael Wager, actor
Although historically home to many creative or artistic people, the building and its co-op
board of directors were criticized in 2005 by former resident Albert Maysles who attempted
to sell his ownership to actors Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas, but they were rejected.
Maysles expressed his "disappointment with the way the building seems to be changing"
by telling The New York Times: "What's so shocking is that the building is losing its
touch with interesting people. More and more, they're moving away from creative people and
going toward people who just have the money." Even prior to this, Gene Simmons, Billy Joel,
and Carly Simon were denied residency by the board. In 2002 The Dakota rejected corrugated-cardboard
magnate and Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor of New York, Dennis Mehiel.
In popular culture
In the film Rosemary's Baby, the Dakota is used for exterior shots of "The Bramford,"
the apartment building where several of the characters live.
In the TV series Frasier, Niles Crane lives in an exclusive apartment called "The Montana"
- a parody of The Dakota. It is an important element in the novel Time
and Again. The song 20 Years In the Dakota by Hole discusses
Yoko Ono's life in the building after John Lennon's death; it was released on their 1997
compilation album, My Body, the Hand Grenade. It is the home of Hunter Rose, from the graphic
novel series Grendel. In the 2001 Cameron Crowe film Vanilla Sky,
protagonist David Aames owns two apartments in the building; exterior shots of the actual
Dakota were used in the film. It is the home of Tsukasa Domyouji, from the
2007 Japanese live-action drama Hana Yori Dango Returns.
It is one of several New York City residences in which FBI Special Agent Aloysius X.L. Pendergast,
a recurring character in novels written by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, resides.
It is the home of Windsor Horne Lockwood III in the Myron Bolitar series written by Harlan
Coben. It is a main staging point of a Lee Child
novel called The Hard Way, which features his renowned hero, Jack Reacher.
It is the primary setting of James Patterson's 2012 novel, Confessions of a Murder Suspect.
See also List of Registered Historic Places in New
York County, New York References
Notes
Bibliography Cardinal.: "The Dakota Scrapbook. Vol 1. Exterior",
Campfire Network, 2014 Birmingham, S.: Life at the Dakota, Syracuse
University Press. Reprint edition, 1996. ISBN 0-8156-0338-X. Originally published by Random
House, 1979, ISBN 0-394-41079-3. Brockmann, Jorg and Bill Harris.. One Thousand
New York Buildings. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal. 10-ISBN 157912237X/13-ISBN 9781579122379;
OCLC 48619292 Schoenauer, N.: 6000 Years of Housing, 3rd
ed., pp. 335 – 336, W.W. Norton & Co., 2001. ISBN 0-393-73120-0.
Alpern, A.: New York's fabulous luxury apartments: with original floor plans from the Dakota,
River House, Olympic Tower, and other great buildings. New York: Dover Publications, 1975,
1987, Exterior views and sample floor plans as well as brief historical synopsis, each
with architect, builder, date built, and when applicable, date razed.
Van Pelt, D. Leslie's History of the Greater New York, Volume III New York: Arkell Publishing
Company 110 Fifth Avenue, 1898, L. A. Williams Publishing and Engraving Company.
Encyclopedia of Biography and Genealogy, vol. III pp. 656.
External links Dakota Building in Google Maps