The Dakota: An Interesting Place I've Never Been

By Thomas M. Parsons

It has been standing there since 1882. It has survived more than 120 cold New York winters and blistering New York summers. And the histories of the rich and famous are written on its walls and in its rooms.

It was New York City's most luxurious apartment building when it first opened its doors in 1884. Built on the west side of Manhattan, across from Central Park, it stood quite alone at the beginning. Behind it were only open fields and squatters' tents. It was so far from the then center of Manhattan that people said it might as well have been built in Dakota. The name stuck, and today the building is known, as it has always been known, as The Dakota.

It is a ten story building with many cupolas and dormer windows looking out over Central Park. Its four sides completely surround a center courtyard available only to its residents. In the 19th century, there was a stable and garage area behind it and an entrance to the courtyard large enough to accomodate a horse and carriage.

The more than 60 apartments in the building have been inhabited by some well-known people over the decades the building has stood on Central Park West. Lauren Bacall. Judy Garland. Jose Ferrer and Rosemary Clooney. Gilda Radner. Connie Chung. Leonard Bernstein. Boris Karloff. And perhaps most famous of all, at least to this generation, John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

The building was designed by architect Henry Hardenbergh whose German background is seen in the building's external features. Picturesque gables and turrets of copper adorn this neo-Gothic style structure. Hardenbergh designed the building for Edward Clark, the head of the Singer Sewing Machine Company, who died before the building was completed.

Many of the apartments contain rooms that have 14 foot high ceilings that spread over huge areas of floor space, some of which boast inlaid wooden floors. In fact, the apartment that was intended for Clark and his family is said to feature inlaid sterling silver floors.

The Dakota is still a prime residence today. Its apartments, many of them furnished, feature a monthly rent that is four digits. The building is closed to the public; only the residents, their guests and employees of the building are allowed entrance. Its location directly across the street from Central Park also contributes to its attractiveness. Many of its apartments offer prime views of North America's largest metropolitan park.

Designed for luxury and beauty, as well as for making a healthy profit, which the building has consistently done, the building nevertheless has had its share of notoriety. Bad things have happened in this beautiful building set in one of Manhattan's most attractive areas.

The exterior of the building was used extensively in the 1968 film Rosemary's Baby. Since filming is not allowed inside the building, except by residents, the producers of the film had to build interiors on a Hollywood sound stage. This film, which I have never seen and have no intention of seeing, was about the devil and the evil which the title character's pregnancy brings upon the world.

Actor Gig Young brought undesired fame to the building in 1978 when he murdered his wife there and then took his own life.

The greateast notoriety came in December, 1980. Ex-Beatle John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono and their son, Sean, moved into an apartment in the Dakota in 1973. They were unquestionably the most famous family living in the building at the time.

Central Park, located immediately across the street, provided a place for the Lennons to retreat. The area near the West Entrance across from the Dakota was a favorite place for them.

During the height of Beatle popularity in the mid-1960s, Lennon made his famous comment concerning Christ. He said, "Christianity will end, it will disappear. I do not have to argue about that. I am certain. Jesus was ok, but his subjects were too simple. Today we are more famous than him." As a result of his remark, conservative Christians in America began burning Beatle records in protest. Lennon later apologized for his remark, but only because of tremendous pressure from the American media which feared a decline in income from the commercial success of the Beatles in America as a result of the backlash.

On December 8, 1980, as Lennon returned from a recording session, Mark David Chapman stepped up to Lennon who was just inside the west entrance to the building, and fired four shots into his body. A fifth shot pierced one of the Dakota's windows. One of the bullets shattered Lennon's aorta, and he died from extreme blood loss while being transported to the Roosevelt Hospital a few blocks away. Lennon was 40 years old.

Five years after his death, Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, gave the city of New York $1 million to develop a memorial for him in Central Park near where Lennon died. The result was the renaming of more than two acres of the park "Strawberry Fields," from Lennon's song Strawberry Fields Forever. Included in the landscaped area is a circular mosaic enveloping the single word "Imagine," a reference to one of Lennon's songs. The site almost always has flowers, cards, and other items placed there by fans. A memorial is held each December 8 on the annniversary of Lennon's death.

But Lennon's popularity will end; it will disappear. I do not have to argue that. I am certain. Lennon was ok, at least as a musician, but Jesus remains far more famous than Lennon ever was.

So, the Dakota remains an interesting place I have never been. Built for luxury and beauty, the building nevertheless cannot escape the effects of the sinfulness of the human race. Its walls could not protect its most famous residents from sin, their own or that of others.