Westbeth
151 Bank Street | also 744 Washington Street, 55 Bethune Street, 463 West Street | West Village | built 1860
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Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1860
Gulian Hook advertises a new steam-powered factory building at West and Bank Streets
In July 1860 Gulian Hook advertised for rent a brick building going up at the corner of Bank and West Streets, offering steam power for up to 100 horses. The four-story Italianate factory stood on a large lot that his wife's uncle, the lawyer William Van Hook, had bought in 1845, and it was built as a speculative rental. A fire in August 1868 destroyed most of the buildings there, and the Hooks, after financial setbacks, sold the property in 1870 and moved to Schenectady.
- 1896
Western Electric starts assembling the Far West Village block for a million-dollar factory
Beginning in January 1896, Western Electric bought up parcels on the block bounded by West, Bethune, Bank and Washington Streets. That June the architect Cyrus L. W. Eidlitz filed plans for a ten-story office and factory building about four times larger than the company's downtown plant, at a projected cost of one million dollars. Piling went in first because of the sandy soil near the river. Western Electric moved into a finished section on Bethune Street in 1897.
- 1923
Researchers at the Bell Labs site experiment with talking pictures
Among the breakthroughs credited to the engineering complex at 463 West Street are some of the first experiments in synchronized sound film, conducted in 1923. The work grows out of the labs' core research into telephone and audio transmission during its years as Western Electric's and then Bell Telephone Laboratories' engineering headquarters.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1925
Western Electric's engineering headquarters becomes Bell Telephone Laboratories
Western Electric put up office and factory buildings on this West Street block between 1896 and 1903, and by 1913 the complex was the headquarters of its engineering department. In 1925 it became Bell Telephone Laboratories, the research arm shared by AT&T and Western Electric. A Moderne addition at 151 Bank Street, built in 1929, served as an experimental sound and motion picture studio. Bell Labs stayed until 1966.
Source: Village Preservation
- 1927
Bell Labs transmits the first television demonstration between Washington and West Street
The landmark report credits Herbert E. Ives, whose use of photoelectric cells to send pictures over wires drove the effort, with the first demonstration of television, in 1927. The link ran between Washington, where Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover took part, and 463 West Street. The same year, radiotelephone service developed at the labs began between New York and London, and a subsidiary was formed to supply sound equipment and technicians to Hollywood studios and movie theaters.
“…led the effort that resulted in the first demonstration of television in 1927 between Washington (Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover) and 463 West Street…”
- 1929
Bell Labs builds a sound-film studio that draws movie stars and the king and queen of Siam
In 1929 Bell Labs built a three-story Moderne building at 151-153 Bank Street, designed by its plant manager Warren B. Sanford, for developing sound recording for motion pictures. It held a sound stage, control room, recording rooms, a theater, dressing rooms and a film vault, and is said to have been the first complete experimental film studio built specifically to perfect talkies. In the early 1930s the Sound Picture Lab was a highlight of lab tours, with visitors from the actors Rod La Roque and Vilma Banky to the king and queen of Siam. By 1937 the labs had stepped back from the movie business.
“…visitors ranging from Hollywood royalty like movie stars Rod La Roque and Vilma Banky, to real royals like the king and queen of Siam…”
- 1968
A June 1968 groundbreaking launches Westbeth, artists' housing in the emptied lab complex
The National Endowment for the Arts and the J. M. Kaplan Fund each put up $750,000 in seed money, later raised to $1.5 million apiece, and the plan went public in August 1967. In June 1968 the property passed to the new Westbeth Corporation, with $2.5 million going to Bell Labs and $900,000 to the Morgan family heirs, backed by an $11.5 million mortgage at 3 percent guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration. Mayor John Lindsay, Stevens and Kaplan attended the groundbreaking on June 21.
- 1970
Richard Meier turns the old Bell Labs complex into Westbeth artists' housing
After Bell Labs moved out in 1966, the complex was converted between 1968 and 1970 into Westbeth Artists' Housing, designed by the architect Richard Meier. The project created 383 combined living and studio units for artists, along with gallery, performance and commercial spaces and a park. The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Bell Telephone Laboratories complex a city landmark on October 25, 2011.
Source: hdc.org
- 1971
Theater for the New City makes the old sound studio its first home
The newly founded Theater for the New City made the former experimental sound studio its first home in 1971-72. The company also launched the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, which began at Westbeth Park under the resident puppeteer Ralph Lee. A series of theaters has followed in the building, among them the Westbeth Cabaret Theater, the Exchange Theater, the Westbeth Theatre Center from 1977 to 2004, the Bank Street Theater since 1994 and the New School for Drama Theater since 2004.
- 1971
Merce Cunningham's dance company moves into Westbeth's penthouse studio
In 1971 the Merce Cunningham Dance Company made its home in the penthouse auditorium at 55 Bethune Street, part of the Westbeth complex. It stayed for almost four decades, until the company disbanded in 2010, a year after Cunningham's death. Cunningham and his partner, the composer John Cage, lived nearby at 107 Bank Street.
Source: NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project
- 1975
Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, the city's first gay and lesbian synagogue, begins worshiping at Westbeth
Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, founded in 1973 as the city's first lesbian and gay synagogue, has held its services at Westbeth since 1975. The Landmarks Preservation Commission's designation report names it among the organizations housed in the former Bell Labs complex, alongside the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio and a series of theaters.
- 1975
The former Bell Labs complex is named a National Historic Landmark
Five years after its conversion into Westbeth artists' housing, the 13-building complex is added to the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1975, recognizing both its role as the birthplace of major 20th-century telecommunications technology and its pioneering reuse as artist housing.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Bell Laboratories BuildingWikipedia
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