On December 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman (Jared Leto) shocked the world by murdering the beloved purveyor of peace, 40-year-old musician and activist John Lennon, outside The Dakota, his New York apartment building. Chapman's motives were fabricated from pure delusion, fueled by an obsession with the fictional character Holden Caulfield and his similar misadventures in J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. In one instant, an anonymous, mentally unstable 25-year-old, a socially awkward Beatles fan who had fluctuated btw idealizing Lennon and being overcome with a desire to kill him, altered the course of history.

Brooklyn Bridge, Lower East Side, Manhattan.   The Brooklyn Bridge, built btw 1869 and 1883, connects Manhattan with New York's most populous borough, Brooklyn, at the time one of the country's largest cities. The bridge is one of the most magnificent landmarks in New York.

The Dakota, 1 West 72nd Street and Central Park West, Manhattan.   The Dakota was built in 1884 and designed by architect Henry J. Hardenbergh. This 93-unit building ranged in size from 3-10 room homes. Today many apartments have been re-configured to accommodate larger and more expansive residences.

The Dakota

The Dakota, constructed from October 25, 1880 to October 27, 1884, is an apartment building located on the northwest corner of 72nd Street and Central Park West in New York City.

The architectural firm of Henry Janeway Hardenbergh was commissioned to create the design for Edward Clark, head of the Singer Sewing Machine Company. The firm also designed the Plaza Hotel.

The building's high gables and deep roofs with a profusion of dormers, terracotta spandrels and panels, niches, balconies and balustrades give it a North German Renaissance character, an echo of a Hanseatic townhall. Nevertheless, its layout and floor plan betray a strong influence of French architectural trends in housing design that had become known in New York in the 1870s.

According to popular legend, the Dakota was so named because at the time it was built, the Upper West Side of Manhattan was sparsely inhabited and considered as remote as the Dakota Territory. However, the earliest recorded appearance of this account is in a 1933 newspaper story. It is more likely that the building was named "The Dakota" because of Clark's fondness for the names of the new western states and territories. High above the 72nd Street entrance, the figure of a Dakota Indian keeps watch. The Dakota was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976.

Terrace Drive and Central Park West, Manhattan.

Boating Lake, Central Park, Manhattan.