New York City’s The Dakota famously appeared in the classic horror film Rosemary’s Baby (1968) by the notorious creep Roman Polanski. This iconic Central Park West luxury apartment building was constructed between 1880 and 1884. The Dakota was commissioned by none other than Edward Cabot Clark, who co-founded the Singer Sewing Machine Company. Back then, the concept of NYC elites living in the same space as each other still held a novel appeal. Recently, Secret NYC bravely took it upon themselves to remind us of the building’s spooky history.
Despite providing the setting for The Bramford, which houses a Satanic coven and is a place of murder and cannibalism, the Rosemary’s Baby film crew wasn’t allowed to shoot within The Dakota’s grand interior — only exterior and courtyard shots were permitted. (Good for The Dakota — film crews are notoriously skilled at damaging property.) The building itself, with its exquisite carvings and ironwork, is a grand and formidable mix of German and French styles, combining all that is pompously elegant and frightening. It represents precisely what architecture should still be, in my immodest opinion.
“Lennon and Ono […] ‘decided it would be wise to hold a séance to see what spirits might be inhabiting their new home.’”
In 1973, the Beatles icon John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono (who, for some strange reason, briefly attended the also supposedly haunted house of horrors known as Sarah Lawrence College, as I had the grave misfortune of doing) moved there in 1973. The NY Post referred to Stephen Birmingham’s 1979 book, Life at the Dakota: New York’s Most Unusual Address, (1979), “Lennon and Ono bought the apartment of actor Robert Ryan, whose wife Jessie had died a few years prior. They ‘decided it would be wise to hold a séance to see what spirits might be inhabiting their new home.’” With the help of a psychic, Jessie apparently informed Ms. Ono that she wasn’t leaving The Dakota.
The Building From ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ Is Real, and Its History Might Be Even Creepier Than the Movie
During his eventful life, Lennon himself had claimed to see a crying female ghost roaming the hallways. Tenants and construction workers have witnessed a variety of other odd occurrences, including a ghostly girl, a curious specter with a boy’s face, and a poltergeist that just might be Clark, who had been a spiritist. Judy Holliday and Jo Mielziner may very well be among the celeb ghosts to have turned up at The Dakota.
On December 8, 1980, Lennon was brutally gunned down under The Dakota’s glorious archway by an insignificant worm who doesn’t deserve to have his name repeated. After Lennon’s death, Ms. Ono has spotted her late husband sitting at his white piano. As reported by the NY Post, he even sweetly told her, “Don’t be afraid. I am still with you.” Others have similarly alleged to have observed Lennon’s apparition, and why wouldn’t he want to be close to his larger-than-life, though physically adorably petite, woman? Although Yoko Ono made headlines this year as the longest-tenured homeowner in the history of The Dakota, in 2023, she relocated to a farm in upstate New York that she and Lennon had purchased in 1978.
While The Dakota has served as a home base to a long list of bigwigs, such as Lauren Bacall, Judy Garland, and Leonard Bernstein, this ultra-exclusive establishment has rejected applications from the likes of Madonna, Billy Joel, Cher, Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas, Judd Apatow, Alex Rodriguez, and (thank the Lord someone had the balls to say no to) Kiss’ Mr. Gene Simmons.
One really odd detail about the landmark, which prioritizes privacy to an almost eerie degree, is that architect Henry J. Hardenbergh opted to avoid fire escapes. Instead, he laid mud from Central Park between the layers of brick flooring for fireproofing and soundproofing purposes. Good luck escaping a psycho within The Dakota’s walls.
The post From ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ to John Lennon: The Haunting History of NYC’s Most Mysterious Apartment Building appeared first on VICE.
