The Dakota, the oldest luxury apartments in New York City, began construction in the Upper West Side in 1880. As it was the first building to be built in the area and it was so far away from everything else in the city at the time, people joked about it being a Dakota territory, which stuck and gave the building its name.

The Dakota apartments were sold out before it was fully constructed. From 1884 until 1929, the apartment never had a vacancy.

The apartment building is most famous for being where John Lennon had lived with Yoko Ono, and the setting for where he was shot to death.