Scavenger Hunt: The Beatles

When Kurt and Kim came to visit, Kim had to see the Beatles sights.  Of course, this was before I became the expert that I am on NYC.  Fortunately, Kim knew what she was doing.  On New Year's Day we saw the sights and now I'm finally getting around to blogging about it.

First up, on 8th Avenue and 72nd Street is the Dakota.  The Dakota actually gets his name from someone making fun of the developer building it so far north of the city.  They said it might as well be built in the Dakotas.  And the name stuck.  (Ch. 90)  Unlike other cooperative buildings, the Dakota was strictly a rental.  (Ch. 90)  These were not like the rentals that you and I have.  The apartments ranged from "4-room 'bachelor' flats to 20-room mansions in the sky, some of which had formal parlors 45 feet deep."  (Ch. 90)

Also, there's no photo because for the life of me I have not been able to figure out which building it was (not that I've been trying that hard).  I seriously have taken a photo of the same building about 3 times now and just realized that it's not the Dakota!  That's kind of embarrassing.  I think I'll have to create another post once I figure out just what exactly I've been photographing and call the post "Not the Dakota"!

My friend Kim.  We had to wait a long time for Kim to
get this photo and some jerko still couldn't get out of the photo!

What the Dakota is most famous for, however, is as the location of the shooting of John Lennon on December 8, 1980.  (Ch. 174)  There were non-stop vigils at the scene and when Yoko Ono complained they were keeping her up, they moved to Central Park.  (Ch. 174)  It is at that location that the New York City Council voted to memorialize Lennon in the park.  You will probably know it as Strawberry Fields in honor of Strawberry Fields Forever.  (Ch. 174)  The mosaic was actually donated by the people of Italy and modeled on a mosaic from Pompeii.  (Ch. 174)  There is also a plaque that commerorates the 121 countries that donated funds to make Strawberry Fields a "Garden of Peace".  (Ch. 174)

The plaque