Volta Laboratory and Bureau

  • Also Known As: Alexander Graham Bell Laboratory
  • Also Known As: Bell Laboratory
  • Also Known As: The Bell Carriage House
  • Also Known As: Volta Laboratory

  • Address: 1537 35th St, NW and Carriage House behind 1527 35th St, NW
  • Vicinity: Volta Pl NW
  • Neighborhood of Georgetown in Washington, DC
  • Travel Genus: Sight
  • Sight Category: Building

The Volta Laboratory and Bureau building, a National Historic Landmark, was constructed in 1893 under the direction of Alexander Graham Bell to serve as a center of information for deaf and hard of hearing persons. Bell, best known for receiving the first telephone patent in 1876, was also an outstanding figure of his generation in the education of the deaf. Both his grandfather and father were teachers of speech and young Bell worked with them. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Bell moved to Canada with his family in 1870 and a year later moved to Boston to teach at a special day school for deaf children. He became a renowned educator by opening a private normal class to train teachers of speech to the deaf and as a professor of vocal physiology and the mechanics of speech at Boston University. During this time he also invented the phonautograph, the multiple telegraph and the speaking telegraph or telephone.

In 1879, Bell and his wife Mabel Hubbard, who had been deaf from early childhood, moved to Washington, DC The following year, the French government awarded Bell the Volta Prize of 50,000 francs for the invention of the telephone. Bell used the money to found Volta Associates, along with his cousin Chichester A. Bell and Sumner Tainter, whose laboratory was focused on the research of recording and transmitting sound. In 1887, the Volta Associates sold the record patents they had developed at the laboratory to the American Gramophone Company, and Bell took part of his share of the profits to found the Volta Bureau as an instrument "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge relating to the Deaf." The Bureau, which was first housed at Bell's father's house at 1527 35th Street, worked in close cooperation with the American Association for the Promotion of the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf (known since 1956 as the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf), organized in 1890, of which Bell was elected President. The Volta Bureau officially merged with this Association in 1908. The work of the Bureau increased to such a volume that in 1893 Bell constructed this neoclassic yellow brick and sandstone building to specifically house the institution. Bell constructed the building across the street from his father's house, the first headquarters of the Bureau.

In 1885 Bell moved the Volta Laboratory from the L Street building (building lost) to the two-story brick carriage house in the rear of his father's residence at 1527 35th Street. The Volta Lab remained at the carriage house location until Bell's death in 1922. During this later period (1885-1922) Bell invented the photophone, an apparatus for transmitting speech over a ray of light by means of the variable electric resistance of selenium to light and shade. He also invented the induction balance for locating metallic objects in the human body, first used on President Garfield, and the telephone probe, which he developed from the former invention. These Bell did not patent but gave to the world. - NPS


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Timeline

Y/M/D Person Association Description Composition Food Event
Y/M/D Person Association Description Composition Food Event
1885/00/00 Alexander Graham Bell Work Alexander Bell moves his laboratory to carriage house behind 1527 35th St.
1893/00/00 Alexander Graham Bell Work Volta Bureau built under the direction of Alexander Graham Bell to serve as a center of information for deaf and hard of hearing persons.

Data »

Particulars for Volta Laboratory and Bureau:
Sight Category Building
Area of Significance Invention
Level of Significance National
Criteria Person
Owner Private
Historic Use Research facility
Historic Use Secondary structure
Area of Significance Social History



US National Registry of Historic Places Data »

Accurate at time of registration:

PLACE DETAILS
Registry Name:
Registry Address:
Registry Number: 72001436
Resource Type:
Owner: Private
Architect: unknown
Architectural Style: No style listed
Other Certification: Designated National Landmark
Nominator Name: National Historic Landmark
CULTURAL DETAILS
Level of Significance: National
Area of Significance: Social history, Invention
Applicable Criteria: Person
Period of Significance: 1900-1924, 1875-1899
Significant Year: 1885, 1922
Associated People: Bell,Alexander Graham
Historic Function: Education, Domestic
Historic Sub-Function: Secondary structure, Research facility
Current Function: Domestic
Current Sub-Function: Single dwelling

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