Imagine all the people, livin\u2019 for today \u2014 and for decades in the same home.<\/p>\n
Yoko Ono has long been known as an artist and an activist \u2014 and now the 93-year-old is on the cusp of adding another title to her name: the Grande Dame of the Dakota.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Indeed, Ono will become the Dakota\u2019s longest current homeowner when an apartment<\/a> at the building\u2019s tippy top completes its sale, The Post has learned. She moved into the storied Upper West Side property \u2014 the first luxury apartment building in America<\/a> \u2014 with her late husband John Lennon<\/a> 53 years ago.<\/p>\n That penthouse, which asked $8 million for sale and is now under contract, was owned by the late art patron Steven Rubin, who bought at the Dakota in the late 1960s and added more space in subsequent years, according to statements by his daughter.\u00a0The final price to be paid for that perch, as well as its new owner, are not yet known.<\/p>\n Yoko Ono has owned her home at the Dakota for more than a half century. Getty Images<\/p>\n Ono has seen some very sweet, but deeply tragic, times while living inside. Getty Images<\/p>\n The Dakota was built as the first luxury apartment building in America, offering the upper classes an efficient alternative to cumbersome mansion living. Alexey Fedorenko \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n With Rubin\u2019s wife, Polly, passing last December, the property listed in June and went into contract this month \u2014 a testament to right pricing, deft marketing and the Dakota\u2019s strong cache.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Rubins\u2019 penthouse began as Gilded Age quarters for maids who worked for the matrons below. Rubin subsequently bought the area above the initial apartment and connected the two spaces with a staircase. Views allowed him and his wife to watch the Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Day Parade from the coveted comfort of their home, according to the listing from Sotheby\u2019s International Realty\u2019s Roberta Golubock.<\/p>\n While city tax records and transfers show other residents of the Dakota, at 1 W. 72nd St., handing down their apartments to family members, no continuous ownership<\/a> by the same person in the 94-unit building is apparent except for Ono.<\/p>\n Her half-century-plus ownership of the seventh-floor sanctuary demonstrates not only staying power, but determination while traversing very devastating, and sweet, times there.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ono and Lennon moved into the Dakota soon after the Beatles disbanded and the pair created their own oasis by adding an adjacent apartment<\/a>. The main room was all white, including its Grand Steinway piano where Lennon composed. <\/p>\n Lennon was gunned down outside of the building by a crazed fan at the age of 40. Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images<\/p>\n The \u201cStrawberry Fields\u201d memorial stands just steps away from the Dakota in Central Park. Getty Images<\/p>\n Ono and Lennon offset that stark minimalism with other rooms outfitted with heavy, dark wood Asian artifacts, old tapestries and antique instruments from all over the world. Expanses with 14-foot ceilings looked down on custom hand-carved marble fireplaces.\u00a0<\/p>\n While the amount Lennon and Ono paid for their original apartment in 1973 has not been pinned down, building records show comparable homes in the Dakota selling for between $150,000 and $200,000 at that time. That\u2019s roughly $1.1 million to $1.5 million in today\u2019s dollars.<\/p>\n Individual units like the one the couple initially bought were generally between 2,500 and 3,000 square feet at the time, city Department of Buildings renderings show.<\/p>\n The Rubins\u2019 penthouse listed for $8 million and is now in contract. Yoo Jean Han for Sotheby’s International Realty<\/p>\n A new owner will enjoy prime views of Central Park. Yoo Jean Han for Sotheby’s International Realty<\/p>\n The residence fills with light. Yoo Jean Han for Sotheby’s International Realty<\/p>\n Ono and Lennon bought at least three other units over the years on different floors for guests, and to use for offices and storage.\u00a0<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, Lennon wrote some of his most textured songs while at the Dakota, including \u201cMind Games,\u201d \u201cWhatever Gets You Through the Night\u201d and virtually all of his final album, \u201cDouble Fantasy.\u201d<\/p>\n The couple raised their son Sean there \u2014 and their apartment was where Annie Leibowitz<\/a> shot the famous 1980 photo of Lennon and Yoko nude and curled up, with his arms wrapped around her head while kissing her cheek. Just 5 hours later, Lennon was dead in the Dakota\u2019s archway from the bullet of an unhinged fan, Mark David Chapman, at the age of 40. (Lennon\u2019s \u201cStrawberry Fields\u201d memorial stands just steps away from the building in Central Park.)<\/p>\n Perks include a kitchen with chef\u2019s appliances. Yoo Jean Han for Sotheby’s International Realty<\/p>\n A cozy, and sun-kissed, area for lounging. Yoo Jean Han for Sotheby’s International Realty<\/p>\n While no board memos or policy changes have surfaced after the murder, the Dakota\u2019s board does appear to have hardened towards celebrities in the aftermath. In following years Madonna, Cher and Billy Joel were all left on the outside looking in when they tried to get the very stringent board\u2019s approval to move in, reports say.<\/p>\n The board was more celebrity-friendly in earlier years, giving its nod to Judy Garland, Lauren Bacall<\/a> and Boris Karloff.<\/p>\n Lennon said he hoped to set the stage for the couple\u2019s board interview by wearing a suit to the meeting and sending Ono back to their apartment to change from the miniskirt she planned to wear.<\/p>\n