Life at the Dakota (35 page)

Every community has its myths, and the Dakota is no exception. Scarsdale and Palm Springs both believe absolutely that their community is the richest-per-capita community in the world. (Neither is.) Philadelphians confidently believe that their city is “the second largest in the United States.” (It isn't.) The Dakotans continue to believe that, for one, theirs was the first luxury apartment house in America, though it wasn't, and, for two, that—as the
Daily Graphic
put it—the Dakota is “the most perfect apartment house in the world.”

Well, it is if you think it is. That's faith.

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.

Image Gallery

Edward Clark

Isaac Merritt Singer

The Dakota

Henry Janeway Hardenbergh

Skating on the lake near the Dakota, c. 1890

Steinway and Sons

Some well-known tenants of the Dakota: Boris Karloff, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Lauren Bacall, Roberta Flack.

Index

Adams, James Truslow,
11

Adams sisters,
47

Agnelli, Gianni,
216

Allen, Calvin H.,
47

Ashley, Ted,
85

Astor, John Jacob,
8
,
14

Astor, John Jacob, III,
7

Astor, Mrs. William,
12
,
14
,
30
,
31
,
43
,
44
,
45
,
48
,
49
,
64
,
141
,
214
,
228

Astor family,
5
,
19
,
43
,
44
,
64
,
233

Bacall, Lauren,
85
,
89
,
91
,
106
,
121
,
132
,
133–34,
146
,
155
,
173
,
191
,
195
,
205
,
207
,
212
,
215
,
216
,
218

Bartholdi (sculptor),
29

Bates, C. F.,
47
,
141
,
144

Beane, George,
208

Beatles,
185-86

Belmont, Mrs. August,
141

Belmont, August,
19
,
30
,
53

Belmont family,
30
,
65

Bennett, Ward,
69
,
111
,
131
,
159
,
198

Bergen, Candace,
215

Bernstein, Leonard,
85
,
155
,
163
,
210
,
216

Bernstein, Mrs. Leonard,
85
,
155–56

Billings, C. K. G.,
212

Bingham, Joan,
210

Blackwell, Earl,
214
,
230

Blanchard, Henry,
59
,
70
,
91
,
110
,
118
,
121
,
157
,
195
,
198–99,
202
,
210

Blanchard, Mrs. Winifred Cecil,
70
,
76
,
91
,
96
,
110
,
121
,
157
,
188
,
198
,
199
,
210

Bloeme, Mrs. Allyn,
113–14

Bluebond-Langner, Myra,
148–49

Bodkin, Winifred,
168–74,
176
,
179
,
209
,
213
,
215

Brandon, Ruth,
26

Bridgeman, Reverend C. DeWitt,
183-84

Bridgeman, Theodore,
184

Browning, Adele,
45
,
65
,
112–13,
121–22,
123
,
124
,
158
,
223

Browning, Edna,
45
,
112–13,
121
,
123
,
158
,
223

Browning, John,
45
,
121
,
122