The Dakota, New York City, Guía del visitante y qué hacer cerca

The Dakota is a late 19th-century apartment building on Central Park West at West 72nd Street in New York City. It is one of the city's best-known residential addresses, famous for its distinctive gabled design, its appearance in Rosemary's Baby, and as the home of John Lennon, who was shot at its entrance in December 1980.

The story behind it

The Dakota was completed in 1884, when apartment living was still a new idea for wealthy New Yorkers, and it was among the first luxury apartment buildings on the Upper West Side. It was built when the area was far less developed than it is now, and a popular story says the name comes from how remote the site felt. The building drew artists, performers and other well-known residents, and it has kept that reputation ever since. Its dark, steep-roofed look has also fed ghost stories, and exterior shots of the building were used in Roman Polanski's film Rosemary's Baby.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono moved in during the early 1970s, attracted by the space and the closeness to Central Park. On the evening of December 8, 1980, they returned from a recording session. Mark David Chapman, who had asked Lennon for an autograph at the same spot earlier that day, shot him at the building's entrance. Lennon was taken to Roosevelt Hospital, where he died. Crowds gathered outside that night with candles and sang his songs. Across the road, Strawberry Fields in Central Park was later created in his memory, with a circular mosaic that reads Imagine.

What to look for

• The steep gables, dormers and ornate rooftop detail give the Dakota a look closer to a European château than a typical Manhattan apartment block.
• The arched carriage entrance on West 72nd Street is the spot where the building's story turned into a place of remembrance.
• The Imagine mosaic in Strawberry Fields, just across the street inside Central Park, is where visitors still leave flowers and sing.
• Look at the building from the park side of Central Park West, where you can take in the full height and the roofline in one view.

Tips for your visit

• The Dakota is a private residence, so you cannot go inside. Seeing it from the street takes only a few minutes.
• Plan to spend longer at Strawberry Fields, which is free to enter and sits right beside the building. Quieter mornings make it easier to take it in.
• Treat the entrance with respect, as people live here and the spot carries a lot of meaning for many visitors.
• Central Park, the American Museum of Natural History and the quiet brownstone side streets are all within an easy walk, so it fits naturally into a longer stroll.

See it on a quest

Murder Mystery: Death in the Shadows in Upper West Side, New York City passes the Dakota as one stop on a longer walk through the neighborhood. The app tells you about each place as you arrive and sets a puzzle based on what is in front of you, so you look at the buildings far more closely than you would on your own. It suits the area's darker stories and its atmosphere. You start whenever you like, with no guide and no group to join, and one ticket covers your whole group.