When the Dakota Apartments opened on Central Park West and 72nd Street in 1884, New Yorkers ridiculed it as Clark’s Folly, poking fun at its developer, Edward S. Clark. These photographs taken from the structure’s roof a few years later illustrate why: Clark had erected an elegant apartment building in the rural backwater of the West Side. The southern view shows that many of the cross streets were still unpaved, and although a few multistory brick buildings can be seen in the distance, the Dakota was surrounded by squatter settlements. AR