Why Yoko Ono remained a resident after John Lennon’s murder

John Lennon and Yoko Ono moved into the Dakota apartments at 1 West 72nd street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in April 1973. Considered one of the city’s finest apartment buildings, the Dakota, built in 1884, has been home to many celebrities over the years including Leonard Bernstein, Judy Garland and Lauren Bacall. The movie “Rosemary’s Baby” was also filmed here.
But in December 1980, the Dakota was the scene of John Lennon’s tragic murder. On December 8, 1980, John Lennon was gunned down in front of the building he had called his home for the last 7 years. A place which represented the positivity of John Lennon’s life in New York had turned into the most harrowing place where he was killed.
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But Yoko Ono chose to remember the good times with her husband at the Dakota, and as a result, decided to remain a resident at the Dakota where she still lives to this day. Last night on CNN’s AC360, Anderson Cooper asked Yoko Ono why she stayed at the Dakota apartment building where her husband, John Lennon, was tragically murdered in 1980.

“Because it was our home. You don’t just leave home,” Yoko explained. “And also for Sean, that was the only home that he knows with having time with his father. Everything in the house really reminded us of him. Every room is where he’s touched. How could we leave that?”
Anderson Cooper said from his own personal experience, he and his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, found it too hard to stay at the building where his brother died, and decided to move out.
Yoko responded, “For me, it gives me what’s the reminder of love that we had. It gives me power.”
Yoko’s apartment on the top floor of the building overlooks Central Park across the street and the special section dedicated to her husband, Strawberry Fields. John and Yoko would take strolls through Central Park often. Yoko says she still does because it is good exercise.
For trivia buffs, the side of the Dakota facing Central Park West was the location for the back cover photo on the 1980 Double Fantasy album with John and Yoko standing on the street corner.

John Lennon loved New York. Yoko believed it reminded him of Liverpool, both being port cities. After his death, John Lennon became somewhat of a symbol of New York, especially with the iconic photo of him wearing his “New York City” t-shirt.
From Yoko’s perspective, The Dakota should be remembered more as a positive landmark in John Lennon’s life celebrating his life and times in New York, the place he chose to live, not the place where he tragically lost his life.