If my mother’s ghost belongs anywhere, it’s here with me.”
Lisa Ryan
The famous Dakota apartment building located in Manhattan, New York was completed in 1884 by a businessman named Edward Clark. Edward was the President of the Singer Sewing Machine Company. Located at 1 West 72nd St, the neo-Gothic architecture was mimicked from the German-Renaissance Revival Structure.
The name “Dakota” came from the remote location of the building. It was described as a “Dakota Territory” due to its rural surroundings in the Upper West Side. Mr. Clark became very wealthy through his company and moved to Europe for awhile, and there he fell in love with the lavish French flats and incorporated that style into the building.
Throughout the years, it became home to many famous celebrities such as Judy Garland, Cole Porter, and John Lennon. But it also has become home to many phantom spirits, as well.
One ghost in particular is said to have haunted the halls of the Dakota for decades. They call her “The Crying Lady.” Many former residents throughout the years have reported seeing a ghostly figure dressed in clothing from the 19th century wandering the halls weeping. One theory is that it was a resident who met a tragic end in the building and her spirit still lurks around the premises. Some have called her the “house ghost”; others, a bad omen. “It’s my birthday,” she allegedly said to a painter who later fell to his death. Many have had countless, sleepless nights due to the “phantom sobbing” they hear in the hallways.
Here, elevators move on their own. Footsteps are heard where no actual person walks. Weird rumblings echo through the walls. One resident claims he saw a chandelier hanging in the window of his apartment as he was walking into the building from the street, despite the fact that he did not own a chandelier in the first place.
Many crazy phenomena emanate from the basement.[it’s always the basement] One involving a man with a wig and another a ghost of a man with the face of a small boy.
By the 1960’s, the building had gained such celebrity status that it attracted Hollywood. It became the location for the 1967 cult horror classic, “Rosemary’s Baby.”
Though the author of the novel, Ira Levin, used it as the setting, he called it the “Black Bramford.” Drawing on the dark mojo that the building gave for inspiration. In Levin’s world, he included cannibalism, witchcraft, and satanism, and murder. All classic traits of a cult horror story or movie.
But the real grimacing story was yet to come. In the late 1970’s, a certain famous musician took up residence in the building by the name, John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono.
It was there out in the front entrance many of his adoring fans would camp out just to get a glimpse of the famous rock star. To them, John stood for something more than just your garden variety songwriter. Unfortunately, the price of fame meant that his celebrity attracted another type of fan that was; let’s just say “psychologically imbalanced.”
On December 8, 1980, Mark Chapman fatally shot John Lennon in the back right outside the archway of the Dakota building. They said the fan was jealous and enraged at the singer’s lavish lifestyle and claimed that The Beatles were more famous than Jesus. Chapman said he was inspired by the fictional character, Holden Caulfied from J.D. Salinger’s novel “The Catcher in the Rye” a “phony-killer” who loathes hypocrisy.
To this day, some people, including Yoko herself, has reported seeing John’s ghost roaming the hallways of the building. Yoko even stated that she saw his spirit sitting at the piano once and he turned and looked at her and said, “I’m still with you.” But who knows for sure.
Nowadays, The Dakota has become something of an exclusive club. Many celebrities such as Antonio Banderas, Melanie Griffith, Cher, and Billy Joel have been denied residency. Needless to say, it’s not cheap to live there, but maybe the spirits will put in a good word for you.
