At 463 West Street you will find the old Bell Labs HQ whose various buildings take up an entire block, between Washington, West, Bank and Bethune Streets. This complex was built between 1880 and 1900 and was originally the home of Western Electric and later, Bell Laboratories. The vacuum tube, radar, sound movies, and the digital computer were all developed here between 1912 and 1937, and the first TV transmission (a speech by Herbert Hoover) occurred here in October 1927. In July 1922, radio station WEAF (named for Earth, Air and Fire) began broadcasting here; it later became WNBC and, at AM frequency 660, broadcast until October 1988; WFAN has been on 660 since then. The complex, renamed Westbeth for two of the streets it borders, was converted to housing in 1969, with an assist from architect Richard Meier, to provide needed living and studio space for artists who could not afford spiraling rents.
Renowned photographer Diane Arbus, who chose unusual subjects, committed suicide here, July 28, 1971. Other residents have included jazz pianist Gil Evans and actors Paul Benjamin, choreographer Merce Cunningham, Moses Gunn and Fast and Furious‘ Vin Diesel.
The building has also been home to the New School for Drama, the Martha Graham Studio for Contemporary Dance, and for 40 years the Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, the first synagogue for LGBT worshipers. There are occasional concerts –in 1997 I saw Ray Davies here on the Kink Kaptain’s autobiographical Storyteller tour.
If the structure in the foreground looks like it could have been an elevated train… it was. A section of the West Side Freight Elevated, built in 1934, actually ran through the eastern section of the building along Washington Street, ending service in 1980. It’s the only extant section of the railroad that won’t become an elevated park. A photo outside Automatic Slims, a hotspot at Washington and Bank, depicts the RR with a freight locomotive plying the route.
A question I have is, Bell Labs stood for a good 30 years before the elevated line was built. What form did it take along Washington Street in those years? How was the railroad built there? Whose idea was it to run it through the building?
A 2011 Landmarks report provides the answer:
“The West Side Improvement projects seriously affected Bell Labs’ plant. After the New York Central Railroad received an easement along Washington Street in November 1931 for its elevated freight railway, Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker was responsible for alterations to Bell Labs’ portion, through Section H and atop Section G, constructed between October 1931 and April 1934 at an estimated cost of $100,000. Noise from the elevated freight railway, as well as the elevated highway constructed above West Street, became a problem for electronics work here.”
The West Side Freight Elevated was constructed in 1934 as a partner to the old West Side (Miller) Highway, with which it shares, or shared, many Machine-Age, streamlined design elements. There’s not a lot of ornamentation, but the High Line does have distinctive iron railings that were, thankfully, kept when it was made into a park. The Elevated was in service, shipping goods from carfloats in the Hudson to business along its route, from 1934 to 1980. Originally running from West 34th between 11th and 12th Avenue south to St. John’s Terminal at Charlton Street, it was gradually shortened before and after its closure, as it was cut back to Bank Street in the 1960s and then to Gansevoort Street in the 1980s.
Ethan Hawke narrates High Line highlights
According to NY Songlines‘ Jim Naureckas,
…this full-block complex created or help to develop some of the most important inventions of the 20th Century: the vacuum tube (1912), radar (1919), sound movies (1923) and the digital computer (1937). One of the first demonstrations of television transmission occurred here, April 27, 1927. [NY Songlines]
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8/14/24
2 comments
My husband and I worked for Bell Labs in this building from the late 1950s to the early 1960s. It really was quite interesting when the train went through. The elevators were mostly large freight elevators.
My mother worked at Bell Labs in the building between bank and bethune. She also sang in the Bell Labs choir.