Westbeth Artists Community

Before this block became a haven for painters and performers, it was the epicenter of American technological innovation. From eighteen ninety-eight to nineteen sixty-six, these buildings served as the headquarters for Bell Telephone Laboratories, the largest industrial research center in the country. Within these walls, scientists achieved breakthroughs that changed the world, including the first demonstration of a talking motion picture and the first public television broadcast, which beamed from this very site to Washington, District of Columbia, in nineteen twenty-seven.