Has anyone here ever visited the Dakota?

I avoided the Dakota for years until I visited the School Book Depository Museum in Dallas at the insistence of a friend and, to my surprise, found it a profoundly moving experience. My visit to the Dakota proved to be the same.

 

In May of 1979, my sophmore year latin teacher took a group of about 15 students on a field trip to the museum of Natural History in NYC. My high school was in Philadelphia - which is approximately 2 hours from NYC.

We went to see some exhibition of ancient Roman art - but I mostly remember that the students were given the freedom to just run off and do whatever they wanted. Our only instructions were to be back at an appointed place at an appointed time.

I remember spending some time in Central Park across the street. I also remember my teacher pointed out the Dakota to us as we walked past it.

He didn't mention anything about John Lennon. I would have been fascinated to know that (even more so because John might have been upstairs on that day).

I didn't really pay too much attention to the building but I do remember being told that it had something to do with "Rosemary's Baby."

Years after John's death, I found myself walking near the place several times.

I was very aware of what it was by that time and I did feel a bit of chill when I saw the entrance. I never saw anyone loitering in front of the place (or even across the street in "strawberry fields") and I never felt the compulsion to do either. I usually went past it because I was trying to get to the subway line that I knew would take me to Penn Station (so I could get my train back to NJ).

 

Excuse me for asking - but does John have a ponytail in this photo?

I can't quite place that long strand of what looks like a ponyttail, a mullet, or a coonskin cap behind his head.

I'm sure its more clear in a bigger version of the photo.

 

Yeah, that's a beautiful thing...

 

I don't think so, this one's a bit clearer. You can see the Dakota doorman in the corner as well.

​

 

There are currently three active listings for apts in the Dakota. Links to listings, with photos of interior.

10 room, 4 bed/3.5 bath, for $18.5M
http://www.warburgrealty.com/property/511010

10 room, 5 bed/4 bath, for $12.5M
http://www.brownharrisstevens.com/detail.aspx?id=917979

6.5 rooms, 1 bed/3 bath, for $5.9M
http://www.prudentialelliman.com/listings.ASpx?listingid=1006804

A NYC real estate website shows apts at the Dakota averaging $2,872 per sq foot. The building's co-op board requires buyers put down 50% of purchase price as a down payment. I imagine other co-op requirements for buyers are pretty tough, too.

 

It looks like the (faux?)-fur collar of his jacket to me.

My one and only trip to the Dakota was a sobering and surreal experience. I woke up early in the morning and took a leisurely stroll from my hotel on 57th & Broadway to the Upper West Side to pay my respects to John. I walked past the Dakota, lingering long enough to soak it in before it became too emotional. I walked across to Central Park to go check out Strawberry Fields, and was hit with an uneasy feeling as I approached. News crews and camera men had descended upon the place that I was going to pay quiet homage to one of my heroes. That was the moment I learned that George Harrison had passed away.

I went to buy a flower to place on the memorial, and spent the next several hours reflecting and mourning.

 

Same here. I've visited the Dakota twice, just walking past and then taking a couple of photos from across the street. I don't know how to describe the feeling, other than "moving." Both times, my wife and kids had stayed across the street in the park. I explained the significance of the site to my daughters, and how Strawberry Fields came into existence. I think SF accomplishes Yoko's goal of creating a suitable memorial to John.

 

Like I said earlier I posted the photo tongue-in-cheek. But I have to be honest, and no offense to anyone, I never understood needing a photo of oneself in front of anything. I have some nice photos of Abbey Road/EMI studios and I was moved to have been there but me in the photos would only ruin them.

 

I went there a couple of weeks ago. I stayed across the street. For whatever reason, that was close enough for me.

 

The day after Lennon's murder, I and a friend of mine cut class (we were going to college in NYC at the time) because she wanted to visit the Dakota building that morning after. Since I had an early class (and an hour and a half commute into the city), I had gone to bed early the night before and therefore hadn't learned of Lennon's death until that following morning when I heard about it on the radio. (I was wondering why they were playing so many Beatles tunes in a row on the radio until I finally heard the bad news.) Anyway, it was a pretty somber scene there that morning. The sidewalk was already littered with Lennon fan mementos, people looked extremely sad and the police were "shoo"-ing people away from the front entrance to the Dakota. We didn't hang around for very long after we got there because it was just too depressing.

 

I live a few blocks away, pass it all the time. Lots of people do... it's an apartment building right by a subway stop. Millions of people pass by the World Trade Center site every day too. It's New York, things have happened everywhere, and life goes on.

If you want to see it and take a photo, go right ahead. People take photos at Normandy too.

 

I went with some friends on an anniversary (probably December of 1982 or 1983). There was this electric charge in the air, being amongst all sorts of fans with candles and such--it was a very weird feeling, powerful.

 

good topic.
i'll hopefully be seeing NYC for the first time sept 30-oct 2 and i plan on going to the dakota.

and spent the last years of his life, don't forget.

 

I went only once and had a strange experience there. I took a taxi up there in December 2006 to interview a woman involved in presidential politics who lived in the building where Yoko still lives. You go in through the wrought iron gates at 57th and when, when you're buzzed in at the security desk, you walk through a courtyard on limestone in the shadows of the massive towers. I went in, took a shuddering elevator to talk with the woman in a grand suite of apartments, stayed for several hours and headed back down. As I walk out the locked gate, a guy in a suit sidles up to me and says: "Excuse me, I'm with the New York Post, do you know Yoko Ono?" It turns out this was the day the cops had arrested Yoko's chauffeur for trying to shake her down. Suddenly, I've got a horde of print and TV reporters all around me who assume I'm a lifelong friend of John and Yoko's. I didn't want to disappoint them, so I said, simply. "I'm sorry but out of respect for Yoko I've got no comment."
They chased after me for a block or so and then gave up.

 

I think part of the appeal for it is that John must have walked where you're standing hundreds if not thousands of times..really takes you back.

I've never been there myself, but you can actually point out (on google maps street view ) exactly where they would have been standing for this..

 

Thanks for those links.

Interesting to see how the other half lives.

 

I believe you mean the 'other' 1%...

 

Lookin' through a Glass Onion.

 

Mind the Gap...

Indeed...

 

I had to stare at it a while - but now I can see that the strange thing that I said "looks like a coonskin cap" (without the cap) is actually part of his jacket.

It looks like a denim jacket with a furry collar.

The fact that his hair was long and kind of blends into the collar is what
confused me.

 

I've posted this before in other similar threads, and have always received comments from Forumites saying that they enjoyed it, so here it is again.

BTW, the little coffee patio place I mention was due to be closed about a year ago... don't know if that actually happened or if it was "saved":



During his reemergence, when asked what he'd been up to during the five "private" years, one of the things he said was that there was a little coffee patio place around the corner from the Dakota that he used to go to a lot (I have a picture or two of him and Yoko sipping coffee there -- they’re on a 45 pic sleeve or two).

When I made a pilgrimage to the Dakota in the mid-80's, I decided to seek this place out.

I had to ask several locals who passed by if they knew of it before finally one did... its entrance was so small I could see how it could easily be missed.

I went in, ordered something, and sat at one of the tables in the little patio.

At a point when he wasn't serving customers, I worked up the nerve to speak to the proprietor (who had a European or Eastern European accent) -- told him I was a big Lennon fan, had read that Lennon had frequented this place, yada, yada, yada.

He proceeded to talk to me for about 15 minutes... and you could see how shattered he still was from the loss. He said that when John was in town, he used to come there almost every day (at about the same time, IIRC), and usually sit at the same little table (which he pointed out to me).

He said that he sometimes brought Sean, and/or sometimes Yoko would accompany him (but most of the time John came alone).

He said John was very friendly and they often talked for quite a while... and that often John would be talking about, and showing new photos of, Sean. He clearly was in love with that kid, according to this proprietor.

He said every time John would travel (to Japan or on the trips that Yoko sent him due to her astrologists and numerologists -- if they were so damn prescient, maybe they should have told him not to enter the Dakota at the main entrance on the night of the 8th ) he would bring back a gift for the proprietor.

He also said John brought him some of the bread he baked a couple of times (and was very excited about it)... though I agree with other sources that John exaggerated the extent of his "bread-baking" period during the December 1980 interviews.

He pointed to a framed picture on the wall behind him (behind the coffee machine, not in clear public view) of John, Yoko and Sean in Halloween costumes that John had given him.

I asked what John's favorite coffee order was, then ordered a cup (and I don't even like coffee ) and sat at John's table -- and tried to send vibes of love and how much he was missed into the great beyond.

BTW, it was here (IINM) an incident took place that John told a funny story about in one of those interviews shortly before he was killed: apparently there was an older couple who were having coffee there and recognized John. He said he could tell they were working up the nerve to come over and say something to him and, that when they finally did, they said they loved his music, but especially his song "Yesterday"


I know that John wasn't skipping through the daises in happiness for this entire period of his life, but this "lying in bed for weeks or months at a time" is just more Albert Goldman bulls&%t!

 

Well, Yoko does mention something about a premonition of sorts in the "Imagine" movie. I don't remember exactly what she says, but apparently John didn't take it seriously.

 

ex-NYC 'er

I grew up diagonally across the street from the Dakota on the 8th floor. I was 20, living with my parents, and in college. As was my habit at that time, I went to bed, turned out the lights and flicked on my trusty Pioneer receiver to see what the next day's weather forecast was (it had been unusually warm for December). What came on was the news of the shooting; apparently it had taken place 15 or 20 mins earlier. It turns out I had heard the shots, but didn't notice them as being such, as I thought it was a car back-firing (back then cars did that). I looked out the window, JL had already been taken to the hospital, but a crowd of perhaps 80 -120 people had already begun to form at the Dakota's entrance. I put something on, ran downstairs, and joined the group. I remember overhearing a couple of press people mention among themselves that they were surprised there wasn't more emotion (his death had either not taken place or had not been announced). A couple of 20-25 yo A**Ho!3s were yukking it up: they were making fun of what I guess was a detective who in fact did look right out of central casting: 50-ish, gray cropped hair, and the gaudiest sportsjacket. I wish I remembered more. From the cars in the photo, I'd say it was taken on one of the first 3 days or so (I can't remember exactly), since after then, 72nd street, which is a busy 4 lanes, was completely closed to motor traffic for about a week... I never did see him, but my mother would see both of them on occasion shopping at the nearby Korean green grocers... I lived there until '87, when I married and moved out, but I remember that for us locals (and for me a huge Beatles fan), the Dakota soon became just another building to walk by, often times not even being aware of the history. As a previous poster put it, life goes on, and that street is just another street you have to walk on/by to get to whatever meeting / concert / etc. you're going to.

 

Wow, Ruben.. what an amazing story/photo..