Waltham, MA

Billed by the Chamber of Commerce as the "Birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution", and an early center for the Labor Movement, Waltham is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, the city was a prototype for much 19th century industrial city planning. The city is now a center for research and higher education. The population was 59,226 at the 2000 census. The name Waltham means 'home in the woods'.

Waltham is commonly referred to as Watch City because of its association with the watch industry. This is due to Waltham Watch Company, which opened its factory in Waltham in 1854. It was the first company to make watches on an assembly line. It won the gold medal in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. Over 40 million watches, clocks and instruments were produced by Waltham Watch Company until it closed in 1957.

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SIDEBAR: Waltham Supermarket on Main Street, established in 1936, was a large historic grocery store that closed in the 1990s. However, the building continues to be a supermarket, occupied by Shaw's, then Victory, and now Hannaford.

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Notable residents

• Aerosmith-- During the 70's Boston area rock band Aerosmith had a studio in Waltham known as "The Wherehouse". It was located off of Lexington Street behind now defunt hardware store "Moe Blacks". The Wherehouse is credited on Aerosmiths 1978 album "Live Bootleg" as the recording site for "Come Together".
• John A. Bailey –- Inventor of the drink through container lid and vacuum forming pioneer. Waltham native
• Ryan Gallant -- Professional Skateboarder
• Abbie Hoffman -- Bestselling author, radical political activist, founder of the Youth International Party
• Jeff Lazaro -- Former Boston Bruins forward notched 14 goals and 23 assists in 3-year NHL career with the Bruins and Ottawa Senators; 1986 Waltham High School graduate
• Noelle LeBlanc -- lead singer/guitarist of Island/Def Jam Records' hard rock/power pop quartet Damone; Waltham native and current resident
• Paul Pierce -- Boston Celtics captain who is a 6-time NBA All-Star as a guard/forward
• Derek Regan -- Founder and CEO of CriminalWatchDog.com. Waltham native and current resident.
• Carroll Spinney -- voice of "Big Bird" and "Oscar the Grouch" on Sesame Street.
• Antoine Walker -- 3-time NBA All-Star forward currently with the Minnesota Timberwolves, was captain of the Boston Celtics and has also played with the Dallas Mavericks, Atlanta Hawks and Miami Heat; former resident
• Sockington -- Leader of Socks Army, first feline to surpass 500,000 Twitter followers.

The Dakota

The Dakota, constructed from October 25, 1880 to October 27, 1884,^[3] is an apartment building located on the northwest corner of 72nd Street and Central Park West in New York City.

The architectural firm of Henry Janeway Hardenbergh was commissioned to do the design for Edward Clark, head of the Singer Sewing Machine Company. The firm also designed the Plaza Hotel.^[4]

The building's high gables and deep roofs with a profusion of dormers, terracotta spandrels and panels, niches, balconies and balustrades give it a North German Renaissance character, an echo of a Hanseatic townhall. Nevertheless, its layout and floor plan betray a strong influence of French architectural trends in housing design that had become known in New York in the 1870s.

According to popular legend, the Dakota was so named because at the time it was built, the Upper West Side of Manhattan was sparsely inhabited and considered as remote as the Dakota Territory. However, the earliest recorded appearance of this account is in a 1933 newspaper story. It is more likely that the building was named "The Dakota" because of Clark's fondness for the names of the new western states and territories.^[5] High above the 72nd Street entrance, the figure of a Dakota Indian keeps watch. The Dakota was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976.
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The building is best known as the home of former Beatle John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, starting in 1973, and as the location of Lennon's murder by Mark David Chapman on December 8, 1980. As of 2009, Ono still has an apartment in the building. The Strawberry Fields memorial was laid out in memory of Lennon in Central Park directly across Central Park West. Every year, Ono marks the anniversary of Lennon's death with a now-public pilgrimage to the memorial
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Several movies, including Rosemary's Baby and Vanilla Sky directed by Roman Polanski and Cameron Crowe respectively, use the exterior of the Dakota. Interiors of the building portrayed in the films had to be shot on a soundstage as the Dakota does not allow filming inside.^{[citation needed]}

The Dakota has also been mentioned specifically in several novels including Time and Again by Jack Finney, The Hard Way by Lee Child, Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child's novels about the character Special Agent Aloysius X. L. Pendergast, Harlan Coben's novels about Horne Lockwood III, and the book series The Baby-Sitters Club.

Several bands and artists also mention the Dakota in their songs, most often in reference to John Lennon. Some of those songs are performed by Tim Curry, Nas, Hole, Christine Lavin, Brand New, and O.A.R., along with a reference in the musical The Last Five Years.^{[citation needed]}

It is also quite plausible that the residence of Dr. Niles Crane on the TV show Frasier - the Montana, is based on the Dakota.

Video footage of the building is sometimes used when going into and coming out of commercial breaks during the court show Judge Judy.