Editing The Dakota (section)

=== Development ===

In 1879, Clark announced plans for an apartment complex at the intersection of 72nd Street and Eighth Avenue<ref name="nyt-1974-02-17" /> (the latter of which was renamed Central Park West in 1883<ref name="Alpern p. 37" />). At the time, the vast majority of development on Manhattan Island was south of [[23rd Street (Manhattan)|23rd Street]].<ref name="nyt-1974-02-17" /> Clark said he wanted "to make money" from the apartment building, even though it was a [[speculative development]] that was not being built with specific tenants in mind.<ref name="Hawes p. 97" /> Hardenbergh filed plans for an eight-story "Family Hotel" at the site in September 1880, at which point it was planned to cost one million dollars.<ref name="nyt-1881-04-17" /><ref name="Alpern pp. 53-54" /><ref name="r-7031128_026_00000290">{{cite magazine |date=October 2, 1880 |title=Buildings Projected |url=https://rerecord.library.columbia.edu/document.php?vol=ldpd_7031128_026&page=ldpd_7031128_026_00000290&no=1 |magazine=The Real Estate Record: Real estate record and builders' guide |volume=26 |pages=864 |number=655 |via=[[Columbia University|columbia.edu]] |access-date=May 11, 2022 |archive-date=May 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220514041207/https://rerecord.library.columbia.edu/document.php?vol=ldpd_7031128_026&page=ldpd_7031128_026_00000290&no=1 |url-status=live}}</ref> Hardenbergh simultaneously designed several dozen low-rise row houses for Clark on 73rd Street. The row houses and the large apartment building were part of a larger plan that Clark had for the Upper West Side.<ref name="nyt-2012-06-01" /> John Banta was hired as the apartment house's general contractor.<ref name="p88892979" /><ref name="r-7031128_026_00000290" /> In early October 1880, about two weeks before construction began, the ''Real Estate Record and Guide'' reported that the building was to be a "residential hotel" with between 40 and 50 suites, each with five to twenty rooms.<ref name="Alpern p. 54">{{harvnb|Alpern|2015|ps=.|p=54}}</ref>

Construction commenced at the end of October 1880.<ref name="Brockmann2002">{{cite book |last1=Brockmann |first1=Jorg |last2=Harris |first2=Bill |title=One Thousand New York Buildings |publisher=Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers |date=2002 |isbn=978-1-57912-443-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gJR_PahlUtIC |oclc=48619292 |pages=342–343 |access-date=May 15, 2022 |archive-date=May 15, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220515233347/https://books.google.com/books?id=gJR_PahlUtIC |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=October 31, 1880 |title=Proposed New Uptown Flats |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1880/10/31/archives/proposed-new-uptown-flats.html |access-date=May 11, 2022 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=May 11, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220511180848/https://www.nytimes.com/1880/10/31/archives/proposed-new-uptown-flats.html |url-status=live}}</ref> The building initially did not have a name, even after the foundations were completed in early 1881.<ref name="nyt-1881-04-17" /> By that October, the building had been constructed to the second story, although the ''Real Estate Record'' wrote that "it is hardly to be expected that it will be under roof before the winter sets in".<ref name="Alpern p. 54" /><ref>{{cite magazine |date=October 8, 1881 |title=Mining Information |url=https://rerecord.library.columbia.edu/document.php?vol=ldpd_7031128_028&page=ldpd_7031128_028_00000286&no=3 |magazine=The Real Estate Record: Real estate record and builders' guide |volume=28 |pages=942 |number=708 |via=[[Columbia University|columbia.edu]] |access-date=May 12, 2022 |archive-date=May 12, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220512165237/https://rerecord.library.columbia.edu/document.php?vol=ldpd_7031128_028&page=ldpd_7031128_028_00000286&no=3 |url-status=live}}</ref> As part of the project, Clark also excavated an [[Artesian well]] measuring about {{cvt|365|ft}} deep and {{cvt|8|in}} wide.<ref name="Alpern p. 54" /><ref>{{cite magazine |date=October 22, 1881 |title=Artesian Wells in New York |url=https://rerecord.library.columbia.edu/document.php?vol=ldpd_7031128_028&page=ldpd_7031128_028_00000330&no=1 |magazine=The Real Estate Record: Real estate record and builders' guide |volume=28 |pages=986 |number=710 |via=[[Columbia University|columbia.edu]] |access-date=May 12, 2022 |archive-date=May 12, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220512165245/https://rerecord.library.columbia.edu/document.php?vol=ldpd_7031128_028&page=ldpd_7031128_028_00000330&no=1 |url-status=live}}</ref> Work was slightly delayed by a [[labor strike]] in March 1882.<ref>{{harvnb|Alpern|2015|ps=.|pp=54–55}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |date=March 25, 1882 |title=Published Weekly by The Real Estate Record Association |url=https://rerecord.library.columbia.edu/document.php?vol=ldpd_7031128_029&page=ldpd_7031128_029_00000287&no=2 |magazine=The Real Estate Record: Real estate record and builders' guide |volume=29 |pages=269 |number=732 |via=[[Columbia University|columbia.edu]] |access-date=May 12, 2022 |archive-date=May 12, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220512165239/https://rerecord.library.columbia.edu/document.php?vol=ldpd_7031128_029&page=ldpd_7031128_029_00000287&no=2 |url-status=live}}</ref> The exterior walls were up to the sixth story by that May, and the builders estimated that the edifice would be completed in 18 months.<ref name="p88892979" />

The building was renamed the "Dakota" by June 1882.<ref name="Alpern p. 37" /><ref name="nyt-1986-09-28">{{Cite news |last=Gray |first=Christopher |date=September 28, 1986 |title=What Are Dakota and Montana Doing in New York? |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/09/28/realestate/what-are-dakota-and-montana-doing-in-new-york.html |access-date=May 11, 2022 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=May 11, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220511182342/https://www.nytimes.com/1986/09/28/realestate/what-are-dakota-and-montana-doing-in-new-york.html |url-status=live}}</ref> At the time, the development was still within a rural part of Manhattan.<ref name="Hawes p. 93">{{harvnb|Hawes|1993|ps=.|page=93}}</ref> One story claims that the name arose because it was remote like the [[Dakota Territory]] was.<ref name="Reynolds p. 227" /><ref name="Hawes p. 93" /><ref name="nyt-1993-08-15">{{Cite news |last=Gray |first=Christopher |date=August 15, 1993 |title=Streetscapes: The Dakota; The Elusive Mystery of Its Name |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/15/realestate/streetscapes-the-dakota-the-elusive-mystery-of-its-name.html |access-date=October 27, 2021 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=October 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211027131042/https://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/15/realestate/streetscapes-the-dakota-the-elusive-mystery-of-its-name.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Though the Clark family never denied this story,<ref name="p1326077730" /> its veracity is disputed, as contemporary publications did not discuss the building's remoteness.<ref name="Alpern p. 37" /> The earliest recorded appearance of this claim was in 1933, when the Dakota's longtime manager told the ''[[New York Herald Tribune]]'': "Probably it was called 'Dakota' because it was so far west and so far north".<ref name="nyt-1993-08-15" /><ref name="p1125467766">{{cite news |date=November 21, 1933 |title=Dakota, Hotel 50 Yrs., Looks Forward to 100: 'Clark's Folly' in Mild '80s, Later Passe, It Seems To Be Starting New Cycle New Owner Felicitated Founder's Brother Disavows Any Intent to Demolish |page=18 |work=New York Herald Tribune |id={{ProQuest|1125467766}}}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Alpern|2015|ps=.|pp=37–38}}</ref> The more likely origin for the "Dakota" name was Clark's fondness for the names of the then-new western states and territories.<ref name="p1326077730" /><ref name="Alpern p. 36" /><ref name="nyt-1993-08-15" /> Back in 1879, Clark had proposed naming the Upper West Side's north-south avenues after states or territories in the Western United States, though his suggestions had been ignored.<ref name="Stern (1999) p. 562" /><ref name="nyt-1986-09-28" /><ref>{{harvnb|Alpern|2015|ps=.|pp=36–37}}</ref>{{efn|In particular, he proposed the following names:<ref name="nyt-1986-09-28" />
* Central Park West – Montana Place
* Columbus (9th) Avenue – Wyoming Place
* Amsterdam (10th) Avenue – Arizona Place
* West End (11th) Avenue – Idaho Place}} The Dakota's remoteness did directly give rise to the nickname "Clark's Folly".<ref name="Reynolds p. 227" /><ref name="nyt-1974-02-17" /><ref name="Hawes p. 93" />

Clark died in 1882 and bequeathed the apartment complex to his oldest grandson, [[Edward Severin Clark]], who at the time was 12 years old.<ref name="p1326077730" /><ref name="Stern (1999) p. 564" /> After Edward C. Clark's death, Hardenbergh never designed another building for the Clark family;<ref name="nyt-2010-07-29" /><ref name="Alpern p. 24">{{harvnb|Alpern|2015|ps=.|p=24}}</ref> their final collaboration, the Ontiora at [[Seventh Avenue (Manhattan)|Seventh Avenue]] and [[55th Street (Manhattan)|55th Street]], was similar in design to the Dakota.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gray |first=Christopher |date=March 9, 1997 |title=Behind a Scruffy Facade, Kinship to the Dakota |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/09/realestate/behind-a-scruffy-facade-kinship-to-the-dakota.html |access-date=May 13, 2022 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=December 27, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171227092248/http://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/09/realestate/behind-a-scruffy-facade-kinship-to-the-dakota.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Work on the Dakota was delayed in August 1883 when the plasterers went on strike to protest the employment of non-union laborers at the site.<ref>{{Cite news |date=August 24, 1883 |title=Plasterers Called Out; the Strike at the Dakota Flats Because Non-union Men Are Employed |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1883/08/24/archives/plasterers-called-out-the-strike-at-the-dakota-flats-because.html |access-date=May 11, 2022 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=May 11, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220511182348/https://www.nytimes.com/1883/08/24/archives/plasterers-called-out-the-strike-at-the-dakota-flats-because.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=August 19, 1883 |title=Coercing Non Union Men |page=7 |work=New-York Tribune |id={{ProQuest|573094651}}}}</ref> Other tradesmen joined the strike but returned to work within a month.<ref>{{Cite news |date=September 12, 1883 |title=A Strike Ended |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1883/09/12/archives/a-strike-ended.html |access-date=May 11, 2022 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=May 11, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220511182343/https://www.nytimes.com/1883/09/12/archives/a-strike-ended.html |url-status=live}}</ref> The mechanical equipment was being installed in the building by March 1884.<ref name="nyt-1884-03-07" /> The ''Real Estate Record'' said the next month: "The 'Dakota' is at last near completion and is receiving its finishing touches prior to its opening in May, when it will be quite ready for dwelling purposes."<ref name="Alpern p. 56" /><ref name="r_7031128_033_00000369" /> In September 1884, the ''Real Estate Record'' reported that the Dakota "will be ready for occupancy October 1" at a yearly rent of $1,500 to $5,000 (equivalent to between ${{Inflation|index=US|value=1500|start_year=1884|r=-3|fmt=c}} and ${{Inflation|index=US|value=5000|start_year=1884|r=-3|fmt=c}} in {{Inflation/year|index=US}}) and that one-quarter of the units had already been rented.<ref name="Alpern p. 56" /><ref>{{cite magazine |date=September 20, 1884 |title=Prominent Buildings Under Way |url=https://rerecord.library.columbia.edu/document.php?vollist=1&vol=ldpd_7031128_034&page=ldpd_7031128_034_00000272 |magazine=The Real Estate Record: Real estate record and builders' guide |volume=34 |pages=948 |number=862 |via=[[Columbia University|columbia.edu]] |access-date=May 12, 2022 |archive-date=May 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220514041204/https://rerecord.library.columbia.edu/document.php?vollist=1&vol=ldpd_7031128_034&page=ldpd_7031128_034_00000272 |url-status=live}}</ref> Elizabeth Hawes wrote that Clark promoted the Dakota as offering "convenience, a short-cut route to opulent living with none of the problems of upkeep, and at a fraction of the expense that went with owning a private house".<ref name="Hawes pp. 97–98">{{harvnb|Hawes|1993|ps=.|pages=97–98}}</ref>