The Dakota almost alone on the Upper West Side

Completed in 1884, the Dakota might be the most famous (and most visually spectacular apartment) house in New York City.

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It’s even more incredible when you see it standing alone with the trees of Central Park in the distance—at a time when the “West End,” as the Upper West Side was called in the 1880s, was being parceled out for development.

Only a lovely row of townhouses a block over hint at what this part of Manhattan would soon become.