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Short Stuff: The Dakota · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck and we're going short stuff. Architectural style, specifically
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: architectural style from the mid to late nineteenth century, specifically
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: in Manhattan on the Upper West Side, specifically about the Dakota.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: That's right, Can I say something very quickly since this
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: is short stuff? Sure, right before we recorded, you said
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Dakota Fanning, and that reminded me. I just got back
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: from New York and I had six celebrity sidings, one
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: of which was El Fanning.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Yeah, she's.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: In the lobby of a hotel. I go on that
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: hotel to pee. I'm always got my head on a
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: swivel in that town, especially in fancy hotel lobbies. Sure,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: and I was like, hey, this's the code of Fanning.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: And I was like, she was sitting with people. I
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: was like, there's got to be somebody else famous, went
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: to the bathroom, came out sitting next to Jessica Chastain.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: Wow, pretty major siding.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Then at one of my pavement shows, I saw uh
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: uh Noah Bombbach and Greta Gerwig.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah they're married.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Okay, wow, say so couple?
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean he co wrote Barbie with her and
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: uh Dean Wareham of Luna. They're all good friends and
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: they were all together, so that was a three banger
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: in one.
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: And this uh.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: This lady near me was jumping up and down like
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: screaming it uh at Greta Gerwig and she was very
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: sweet from up above in the balcony and like made
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: the little heart symbol and like said she loved her.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: It was very sweete uh.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: And then sat next to Tiffany Hattish on the on
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: the flight home. Wow, but she was a girl across
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: the asl from me.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Did you did you bugger the whole time? No?
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: I didn't say anything.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Were you like, hey, Tiffany, you remember this one joke
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: you told that was hilarious.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: She's great though. She's very pretty too.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, she is wonderful.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: I like that voice.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: So she got that sort of a low voice, kind
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: of like this, I am Tiffany Hattish.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: That's okay, all right, we gotta go because we're talking
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: the Dakota here, not Dakota Fanning or l Fanning.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: No, the apartment building in New York City.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: That's right, the one where John Lennon was shot in
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: front of Yeah, he's lived there at the time.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: No, no, no, he lived there, and he was shot on
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: the sidewalk outside the Dakota.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: So that's not the only reason that Dakota is famous,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: although it's probably the biggest reason that Dakota is famous.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: One of the reasons that Dakota is famous is because
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: it was one of the first apartment buildings in New
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: York City, like they didn't do apartments back then. And
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: even more spectacular than that it being one of the
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: first apartment buildings is that it was plunk down in
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: the Upper West Side at a time when Central Park West,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: one of the most what is it, white heeled, high heeled,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: well healed, well healed, like bits of stretches of real
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: estate in the world, was a dirt road still and nowheres.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Fill nowhere, yep. Nobody wanted to go up that far.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: They were like, there's nothing up there.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: That's right to hay seeds.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: And in fact, it was so far out that the
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: guy who built the Dakota, who will meet in the second,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Edward Cabot Clark, bought it from an industrialist whose wife
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: threatened to divorce him if he built their house out there.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: And he's like, all right, I'll just get rid of
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: his piece of land.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Then yeah, she's like, I want to live down here
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: where it's posh in Alphabet City.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: You know what's funny is you remember if you go
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: read our book, there's a whole chapter on Keeping Up
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: with the Joneses, and it talks a lot about this
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: part of New York history where there are all sorts
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: of nowheresvills around that today are just like incredibly famous
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: and expensive.
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: That's right, all right.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: So the Dakota, like you said, people were not living
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: in apartments at the time. They were living in brownstones,
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: which were single family homes, and there were a couple,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: like a couple started to spring up in the eighteen seventies.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: They weren't great. They were kind of like you think
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: of New York apartments. They were small, they didn't have
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: a lot of light. People didn't love renting and living
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: in them. And along came this guy, Edward Cabot Clark
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: that you mentioned. He was the president of the Singer
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: Sewing Machine company. So he was loaded and he got
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: together with an architect named Henry Janeway Hardenberg a great name,
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: and to get into real estate. And the first thing
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: they built which is sadly not there anymore. Is kind
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: of a prototype for the Dakota called the Van Corlier,
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: a red brick, five story, thirty six apartment building that
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: was on Seventh between fifty fifth and fifty six.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it immediately improved on its predecessors because the
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: rooms were larger, the apartments themselves were larger. There was
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: a courtyard, so there was plenty of like natural light
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: and air, had elevators apparently which we talk in like
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: the eighteen eighties, eighteen seventies, and there was also I
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: think a what was there, Oh, there was a ramp
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: that went beneath it. So then you didn't have to
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: silly your family reputation by accepting deliveries out there in public.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: You could go down to the basement and meet the
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: delivery driver to keep them to take whatever they gave you.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it was just nicer overall. I think there
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: was an intercom system and you know, like Spanish tile.
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: It was just a step up for sure.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: And all of a sudden in eighteen seventy eight they
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: rented out very quickly, and so Clark was like, all right,
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: it turns out if you build it nice enough, they
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: will come and apartments can be a real thing. And
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: like you said, bought that property or I guess it
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: was just land at the time, right, yeah, bought this
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: land from Jacob Henry Schiff way way uptown and decided
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: to build his second sort of dream property there.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Yep, which would be the Dakota. And I say that
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: we pause from stage break and then return and begin
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: talking about the Dakota some more.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: And Tiffany Hattish right after this, stoffy jaws.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Sho, stff you a job, job, So Chuck, we're talking
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: about the Dakota now starting now.
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: So, if the vancourtlier was an advancement based on the
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: stuff that came a few years before it, the Dakota
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: was an even better advancement improvement based on the van courtlier.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: It had big apartments, big rooms, yard, lots of light,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: ramp underneath and all that stuff. But it was also
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: like even more luxuriously designed. Like if you came over
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: to someone's apartment, you couldn't see through down the hallway
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: to every single room. The walls were kind of like
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: designed around so that you couldn't like there was a
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: separation between your visitors and the living part of the
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: apartment or the sleeping part, you know, the family part,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: I guess is what you'd call it. Just little details
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: like that. Another big detail was that it had its
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: own power plant that generated electricity for it in the
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: eighteen seventies.
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, not bad.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: The kitchens had little balconies so if you had stinky
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: stuff like garbage that you couldn't get down, or maybe
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: even stinky food or something, you could put it just
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: right outside the kitchen, which was something that a lot
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: of places didn't have. They had a boiler, so they
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: had insulated pipes bringing steam and hot water into the building,
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: which was a big innovation at the time. And they
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: had tennis courts, they had croquet courts. It was a
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: real gym. It still is. It's one of my favorite
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: buildings in New York. Oh yeah, every time I go
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: up there to Central Park, at least, I try to
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: pop out on that area and just go go give
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: it a look because it's a beautiful building. It's sort
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: of a mishmash of styles. It's been called you know,
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: French Renaissance or got German, Gothic, or even Victorian, and
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: it's kind of a little bit of everything.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: But it's beautiful.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: I don't think I've ever seen it in person. If
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: I have, I didn't realize it.
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: You may have. It's lovely. It's right there on a corner.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: So here's the thing. When Edward Cabot Clark was creating
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: the Dakota, he was widely derided for it. They called
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: it Clark's folly because people were deeply insensitive in the
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: nineteenth century. And the reason why they call it that
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: is because again, it's in the middle of nowhere, and
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: people aren't really into apartments like we said, they live
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: in like three story brownstones, like they live in homes.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: They don't live apartments. The people who lived in apartments,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: as far as this house Stuff Works article points out,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: were widows, widowers, and people who were waiting for their
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: wealthy relatives to die so they could inherit their house.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: And all of a sudden, Clark is like, no, no,
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: we're changing the game. Anyone who is anyone is going
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: to want to live in an apartment. And it turns
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: out his gamble paid off. He was right.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he'd Sadly, he died before it was finished, so
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: he didn't get to see it come to fruition. But
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: It was certainly not his folly, because, like you said,
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: people lined up to rent these things or I guess
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: I don't know. Were they all rentals at the time.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: I wonder if anyone were available for sale.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: I think they were all rentals.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Okay, well people rented them, but they were people that
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: had money. They just weren't like robber barons who wanted
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: to live in mansions. They were sort of the early
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: New York, you know, upper class. They were people who
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: like were bank presidents and people who like the CEOs
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: of the time. Apparently the Adams sisters were heirs with
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: chewing gum fortune.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: They live there.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: What's that and that flavored tea berry? One of the
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: greatest gum flavors of all time? That's it?
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: Was it?
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Tea berry?
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: Now? Are you kidding? Because I can't tell.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: No, No, that's for real. It's like a kind of
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: salmon pink colored gum. No. No, the wrapper is okay,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: it tastes like salmon too. No, it's a really delicate,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: unique flavor and you could probably find it like cracker barrel.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Don't they have all sorts of old timey candies or
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: one of those rocket fizz places.
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: I have no idea anywhere that sells candy.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: I'll bet they have tea berry stick gum and it's
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: really worth trying.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: All right, O's a nice tip there, thanks.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: So the Dakota started a trend all of a sudden,
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: luxury apartment houses started popping up all over the place,
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: kind of in the same model, with like bigger rooms
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: and higher ceilings and stuff like that, and the Upper
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: West Side. It wasn't right then, but around the early
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: nineteen hundreds that really started to take off and really
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: changed the face.
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: Of New York.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: You know, they started building up more after World War One,
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: obviously when New York said they could, and apartments became
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: the way to go.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Eventually the Dakota started seeing a different clientele, not
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: you know, straits and squares like bank presidents, but like
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: stars like Lauren McCall and Judy Garland.
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: Wowie wow.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Of course Karloff too. That's pretty cool. Imagine living next
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: to him. And then of course two of the most
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: famous residents, John Lynn and Yoko oh No, who was
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: widely blamed for moving John Lenn to the Dakota, and
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: he would have lived had she not done that. Do
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: people say that probably somebody out there, okay, poking fun
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: at those people.
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: I think he loved the Dakota.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that would seem to be as home as they
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: were there for like a dozen years, I think right
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: before he died.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure how long he loved New York City though.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: It was a great scene for both he and Yoko.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, anything else, I got nothing else. Go check out
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: the Dakota if you're in New York. It's a great,
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: great looking building.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Yes it is. And since Chuck said that that means
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: short stuff out.
• 12:13
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• 12:16
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• 12:20
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