First Luxury Apartment Houses on the West-side of Central Park were referred to as "outposts in Indian Territory"

The gigantic luxury apartment houses of Manhattan fascinate me and I love to talk about them on my private tours. The most famous of course, is The Dakota, built 1880-84 by Edward Clarke and designed by Henry J. Hardenburgh. But there are many others that have survived into the 21^st century. Many were built as hotels or as rental buildings and have been turned into condos or co-ops.

The first gigantic buildings built with steel beams popped up in the late 19^th century and the idea to build them came from Chicago. In fact, the first Manhattan skyscrapers were designed and built by Chicago builders so the first buildings were referred to as “Chicago-style” buildings years before the word “skyscraper” was coined. It wasn’t long before the tall office buildings gave way to steel frame apartment buildings and hotels and churches.

The South and West sides of Central Park began developing in the 1880s as a place for these new gigantic structures, but genteel high society in their fancy houses and mansions, was situated on the East side of Central Park because that’s where Fifth Avenue is located.  The West side of the Park was mostly undeveloped land…former farms, boulder fields, swampy spots, etc.   New Yorkers on the posh East side which was heavily built up would refer to the sparsely popular and unfashionable West side of the Park as “Indian Territory” and supposedly that’s how the Dakota got its name. No where on the building is the word “Dakota” except on the building’s official paperwork, yet the name stuck. Supposedly New Yorkers would say “why do you want to live that far west? You might as well be in Indian Territory.” The late architectural historian Christopher Gray of the New York Times Streetscapes column always insisted that he couldn’t find anywhere that was documented, yet it’s common knowledge that New Yorkers of the 19^th century referred to the West side that way.

After The Dakota, came other huge apartment houses names for other “wild” territories: The Wyoming Apartments (1906), The Montana, The Colorado Apartments and others which didn’t survive into modern times such as The Nevada and the California.

Of course there are many luxury buildings all around the city now on the West AND East and South and North sides of Central Park; buildings like The Osborne, The Ansonia, The Dorilton, The Astor, The Beresford, The San Remo, The Century and some with no names just impressive addresses such as 1107 Fifth Avenue, 1040 Fifth Avenue (Jacqueline Kennedy’s former home), 740 Park Ave, etc.Andrew Alpern's books are wonderful "peeks" into the world of New York's luxury apartments...many of his books even share floorplans.

Jim Dykes, New York private tourguide does walking tours for private groups and bus tours and step-on tours for visiting groups.
www.JimDykesNYC.com
Email: JimDykesNY@gmail.com