Something About Dakota Fawning

Imagine such a building!

Have you ever fawned over a hotel? I mean, I once saw an impressive exotic-themed Travelodge somewhere in the Midwest 40-some-odd years ago. And I once drove by a Thunderbird Motel whose building was shaped like a large, well...thunderbird. Lying down. Only aerial photos did it justice.

One such impressive looking building is the Dakota, the 10-story apartment complex at 72nd Street and Central Park West in Manhattan. I’ve often wondered where its name came from and of course there are theories:

The building purportedly was named The Dakota because at the time of its construction, the area was sparsely inhabited and considered remote from the inhabited area of Manhattan, just as the Dakota Territory was considered remote. The earliest appearance of this story, however, was in a 1933 newspaper interview with The Dakota's long-time manager. Christopher Gray's book New York Streetscapes quotes the interaction thus: "Probably it was called 'Dakota' because it was so far west and so far north". Gray believed that the building's name stemmed from [the original owner's] fondness for the names of the new western states and territories.

It’s also been home to a number of prominent and interesting people, including:

• Singer and actress Rosemary Clooney, best known for "Come On-a My House" (a song Roderick Childermass strongly disliked in The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt)
• Composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, of West Side Story fame, among others pieces of music
• Actor Boris Karloff, known for his roles as Frankenstein's monster

Horror movie fans likely remember exterior shots of the building as The Bramford, the apartment building in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby (1968).