Tesla's Home Addresses, 1889-1943

Here in my exploration of the life of Nikola Tesla, I am listing his home addresses beginning in 1889. There is a common theme to his residences: the grandest or most modern choice of its day.

Home Addresses:

1889-1892 Astor House Hotel, Manhattan.
Broadway between Vesey and Barclay Street.
Built 1836. Torn down 1913.

Astor House as it appeared near the end of its existence.

September 1892-1899 Gerlach Hotel.
49 W 27th St., Manhattan
North side of 27th, near Sixth Ave.
Built 1883. Still standing and now called The Radio Wave Building in honor of Tesla.

 Gerlach Hotel, approximately 1900. Then renamed Earlington.

For a period beginning May 1899  Alta Vista Hotel Room 207, Colorado Springs, CO.
Built 1889. Demolished 1963.

Alta Vista Hotel, Colorado Springs.

1899-1917? Waldorf-Astoria, Manhattan.
Fifth Avenue and 33rd Street.
Built: 1893 (Waldorf) and 1897 (Astoria), demolished 1929 to make way for the Empire State Building.
For a time the largest hotel in the world.

 Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

July 1917 - November 1918: Blackstone Hotel.
Corner of Michigan and Balbo Street, Chicago, IL.
Built 1910, still standing.

 Blackstone Hotel, Chicago, circa 1920.

1918: Hotel St. Regis. Room number 1607.
2 E. 55th St. Manhattan.
Near 5th Avenue.
Built 1904. Still standing.

St Regis Hotel as it appeared in 1905.

1923: Hotel Marguery.
270 Park Avenue, Manhattan.
West side of Park Ave. between 47th and 48th.
Built 1917. Demolished 1947.

Hotel Marguery

1925: Hotel Pennsylvania. Manhattan.
401 Seventh Avenue, Manhattan.
Seventh Avenue between 32nd and 33rd.
Built 1919. Still standing.

Hotel Pennsylvania, approximately 1920.

1930: Hotel Governor Clinton.
371 Seventh Ave.  Manhattan.
Seventh Avenue at 31st Street.
Built 1929. Still standing.

January 2nd, 1934 - 1943: New Yorker Hotel, Room 3327.
481 Eighth Avenue, Manhattan.
Eighth Avenue at West 35th.
Built 1930. Still standing.

Hotel New Yorker

January 7th, 1943. Tesla Moves to Elysium.


Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. Its sequel, set in 1890s Manhattan and titled A Predator's Game, features Nikola Tesla as a dective and will be available from Rook's Page Publishing, March 28, 2016.  (More details coming soon.)
His recent mystery, Never Kill A Friend, is available from Ransom Note Press. His epic poem, Two Mistakes, recently won second place in the Margaret Reid/Tom Howard Poetry Competition. He can be contacted at mdhillortiz@gmail.com.

Continue reading →

Tesla As He Was Listed in Trow's Corporation Directories, 1889-1921

Trow Publishing put out three different annual directories describing business and home addresses in New York. These were the Business Directory, the City Directory and the Copartnership and Corporation Directories.

This post will focus on Tesla's appearance in the Copartnership and Coorporation Directory*.

A listing from the 1912 Directory.

1889. Volume XXXVII, March 1889. (Google Books)
Tesla Electric Co. (Alfred S. Brown, Pres., Charles F. Peck, Sec. Capital $300,000 Directors: Alfred S. Brown, Charles F. Peck, Nickola Tesla, Elverton R. Chapman, George F. Casilear) 16 Broad. (p. 262) (Nickola - I strove to include the misspellings in the original documents and did so without adding "sic" in most instances.) In later years in the business directories, Tesla will have an office at 15 Broad.

1890. Volume XXXVIII, March 1890 (Google Books)
No direct Tesla reference. However, the directory does include the following two businesses at the address of Tesla's 1889 laboratory.

Freeman Dynamo Electric Motor Co. (N. Denison Morgan, Pres.; Robert Webb Morgan, Treas.. Capital, $250,000. Trustees: N. Denison Morgan, Louis Bauer, Julian W. Merrill, James H. Morgan, Warren P. Freeman, Robert Webb Morgan, Samuel C. Robinson) 89 Liberty. (p. 104)

Freeman Electric Mfg Co. (Warren P. Freeman, Pres.: Robert Webb Morgan, Sec. Capital, $50,000. Trustees: Warren P. Freeman, J. W. Robertson, William H. Cotterell, Robert Webb Morgan, S. Blovelt) 89 Liberty. (p. 104)

There are business and city directories to fill the gaps of the next ten years, but the next Corporation Directory I encountered was from 1900. I will add this entry from The Trow Business Directory of New York City 1897: Electricians Tesla Nikola, Co. 15 Broad (p. 390)

1900. Volume XLVIII, March 1900 (Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections)
Tesla Nikola, Co. (N. Y.) (further inf. unattainable)  46 E.  Houston (p. 426)

1901. Volume XLVIX, (sic) March 1901. (HathiTrust)
Tesla Nikola, Co. (refused) 46 E. Houston. (p. 480)

1902. Fiftieth Year, March 1902 (HathiTrust)

The listing from the 1902 Directory.

Tesla Nikola, Co. (N. Y.) (Nikola Tesla. Pres.; William B. Rankine. Sec. Capital, $500,000; further inf. unattainable) 46 E. Houston (p. 512)

Note: Tesla is still listed at 46 E. Houston St. as of 1902.

1906. Fifty-Fourth Year, March 1906 (HathiTrust)
Tesla Machine Co. (N.Y.) (Capital $300,000 Directors: Nikola Tesla, Langdon Greenwood. William Andres; further inf. unattainable) 17 Battery pl.. R. 1403 (p. 714)

Note: 17 Battery Place is the Whitehall Building. Twenty story structure built in 1904. Still standing.

1908. Fifty-Sixth Year, March 1908. (HathiTrust)
Tesla Machine Co. (inf. unattainable) 17 Battery pl. R. 1410 (p. 805)

1909. Fifty-Seventh Year, March 1909 (HathiTrust)
Tesla Electro-Therapeutic Co. (N. Y.) (Capital $400,000. Directors: Archibald M. Langford, Morton G. Bogue, Ward W. Pickard; further inf. unattainable) 111 B'way R. 1401. (p. 768)

Note: 111 Broadway is Trinity Center, built 1907 and is still standing.

1911. Fifty-Ninth Year. March 1911 (HathiTrust)

Tesla Electro-Therapeutic Co. (N. Y.) (Capital. $400.000. Directors: Archibald M. Langford, Morton G. Bogue. Ward W. Pickard; further inf. unattainable) 111 B'way R. 901 (p. 880)

Tesla International Propulsion Co. of N. Y. (N. Y.) (Capital, $1,000.000. Directors: Henry C. Quimby. John F. Valieant, James F. Eagan, further inf. unattainable) 202 Metropolitan tower (p. 880)

Note: The Metropolitan Life Tower, completed in 1909, was briefly the tallest building in the world. It is still standing.

Tesla Ozone Co. (N. Y.) (W. Kelley, Pres.; C. M. McKeever, Sec. Capital, $400,000. Directors: W. Kelley, W. H. Macmurdo, C. M. McKeever) 111 B'way R. 901 (p. 880)

Tesla Propulsion Co. of N. Y. (N. Y.) (Capital. $1,000.000. Directors: Nicola Tesla, Joseph Headley, Walter H. Knight; further inf. unattainable) 111 B'way Rm. 901. (p. 880)

1912. Sixtieth Year, March 1912. (HathiTrust)

Tesla Electro-Therapeutic Co. (inoperative) 111 B'way R. 901 (p. 844)
Tesla Ozone Co. (inoperative) 111 B'way R. 901 (p. 844)
Tesla Propulsion Co. of N. Y. (N. Y.) (inf. unattainable) 111 B'way Rm. 901. (p. 844)

1914. Volume 62. Now: R.L. Polk & Co. Trow New York Copartnership and Corporation Directory (Google Books)

Nothing under the name of Tesla.

1915. Volume 63. Now: R.L. Polk & Co. Trow New York Copartnership and Corporation Directory (Google Books)

Nothing under the name of Tesla.

1918-1919 Volume 66 for the year commencing January 1919. (Google Books)

Tesla Co, Inc (N Y) Nikola Tesla Pres. Geo Scherff Sec. Capital, $250,000. Directors: Nikola Tesla, Geo Scherff, R Diaz Bultrago, 8 W 40th R 2006. (p. 1141)

Tesla Nikola Co, Inc (N Y) Nikola Tesla Pres. Geo Scherff Sec. (further inf. unattainable, 8 W 40th R 2006. (p. 1141)

Note: This is the first mention of 8 W. 40th address. The nearby corner has been memorialized with his name.

1921 (Google Books)

Cinemachinery Mfg Corp Sol Kappler Pres. Nicola H Tesla Treas; further inf unattainable. 723 7th av (p. 1701)

Tesla Co, Inc (N Y) Nikola Tesla Pres. Geo Scherff Sec. Cap, $250,000. Dir: Nikola Tesla, Geo Scherff, R Diaz Bultrago, 8 W 40th R 2006. (p. 1776)

Tesla Institute (RTN) (name discontinued) 248 W. 70?th. (p. 1776)

Tesla Co, Inc (N Y) Nikola Tesla Pres. Geo Scherff Sec. further inf unattainable. 8 W 40th R. 2006 (p. 1776)

Image from TeslaUniverse.

*I was able to locate fifteen of these online and available for searching. These were at HathiTrust, Google Books, Columbia University Digital Online, and Archive.org.

The titles of these directories varied slightly over the years and in the mid-1910s, their publication was taken over by R.L. Polk. A basic format of the early titles were: The Trow City Directory Co.'s, Formerly Wilson's, Copartnership and Corporation Directory of New York City. Volume #, Month, Year. Trow Directory, Printing & Bookbinding Company.

--------------------------- 
Nikola Tesla, Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Henry H. Holmes are all characters in my thriller, A Predator's Game.
 
A Predator's Game is available in soft-cover and ebook editions through Amazon and other online retailers.

A Predator's Game, now available, Rook's Page Publishing.

 -----------------------

Back page blurb.

Manhattan, 1896.

When the author Arthur Conan Doyle meets Nikola Tesla he finds a tall, thin genius with a photographic memory and a keen eye, and recognizes in the eccentric inventor the embodiment of his creation, Sherlock. Together, they team up to take on an "evil Holmes." Multi-murderer Dr. Henry H. Holmes has escaped execution and is unleashing a reign of terror upon the metropolis. Set in the late nineteenth century in a world of modern marvels, danger and invention, Conan Doyle and Tesla engage the madman in a deadly game of wits.

Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. Its sequel, set in 1890s Manhattan and titled A Predator's Game. It features Nikola Tesla as detective.

Continue reading →

Reconstructing Tesla's East Houston Neighborhood.

I have undertaken the task of reconstructing Tesla's East Houston neighborhood using information from the city atlases and the Trow's business directories. Links to the sources are available near the bottom of the post.

Bromley Atlases.

The Bromley atlases of New York City (or Manhattan, etc.) are crammed with detailed information, so much so, that they can be difficult to digest. Along with street names and addresses, they strive to present the structural material of buildings (wood, stone, brick), dimensions of buildings (stories, width along street front), street width, along with sewage, water and a host of other information.

The New York Public Library system has the most complete set available online. These can be downloaded and, for those in the public domain, used at will. Those available through their NYPL Map Warper have the highest resolution — and a high resolution may be necessary to read all of the information. A typical tiff format file is approximately 80 MB. The legend to the 1897 set of maps is presented in two parts, below.

From Atlas of the city of New York, Manhattan Island. From actual surveys and official plans by George W. and Walter S. Bromley, 1897.

Below is a portion of plate 8 from the 1897 Atlas. This is the neighborhood around Tesla's 46-48 E Houston laboratory where he worked from July, 1895 on into the 20th century.


From Atlas of the city of New York, Manhattan Island. From actual surveys and official plans by George W. and Walter S. Bromley, 1897. The names of Mulberry, Mott and Elizabeth were added and general map information running beneath E. Houston was eliminated.

Trow's Directories.

Many of the annual editions of Trow's business directories and city directories of New York are available online from Hathi Trust, Archives.org and Google Books. These are presented in converted text as well as the scanned files, among other formats. The text allow word searches but the conversion can induce errors and searches can be incomplete. In one instance, E Houston became B Houston in the text version. In another, extreme case, "ass E Houston b" i" iosoioooher Morris" was "356 E Houston Isselbacher Morris" in the photocopy.

Although it is likely that scan conversion errors made my search incomplete, I did check each information "hit" against the scans of the original document and errors were corrected. My search focused on each reference to E Houston from the 1898 edition. I also checked key addresses in the 1897 directory.

Combining the Information.

The East Houston laboratory was located at addresses 46-48 on the north side of East Houston with Mulberry Street to the west and Mott Street to the east.


Addresses:
North side East Houston, Mulberry to Mott: 42 to 52 (even numbers) Width of block: 171.3 feet.
South side East Houston, Mulberry to Mott: 41 to 55 (odd numbers) Width of block: 175.5 feet.

Guide to the format of occupants of buildings.
Category of business as presented in Trow's. Name of business or owner last name, first name. Address. (Page in directory, 1898, unless otherwise noted.)

E. Houston, northwest corner of Mulberry.

Building address: 40 E. Houston. Lot #: 43. Street front width: 35.1 feet. Five stories. Brick.
Occupants:
Spool Cotton. Pollack, Max. 40 E Houston (p.1008)
Millinery Goods. Hochheimer, Albert, 40 E Houston (p. 717)
Clothiers. Samuels M. and Co, 40 E Houston (p. 284)

E. Houston, southwest corner of Mulberry. (Puck Building, still standing)

Building address: 39 E. Houston. Lot #: 45. Street front width: 118.11 feet. Eight stories. Brick.
Occupants:
Newspapers, Periodicals & c. Puck (w) Keppler & Schwarzmann 39 E Houston. Note: & c. was a way of noting etc.
Puck Quarterly. Keppler & Schwarzmann, 39 E Houston
Puck's Library (m) Keppler & Schwarzmann. 39 E Houston
Puck's Stories (q) Keppler & Schwarzmann. 39 E Houston (p. 755)

E. Houston between Mulberry and Mott, North Side.

Building address: 42-44 E. Houston. Lot #: 25. Street front width: 44.8 feet. Six stories with basement. Brick.
Occupants:
Cigar Dealers. Laredo, Jose 42 E Houston (p. 249)
Roofers, Metal. Borkel, John, 42 E Houston (p. 966)
Braids. Schwaze, George, 44 E Houston (p. 144)
Bicycles & c. Pinover A. & Co. 44 E Houston (p. 96)
Straw Goods Dealers. Marty John & Son 44 E Houston (p.1039)

The Building with Tesla's Laboratory:

Building address: 46-48 E. Houston. Lot #: 33. Street front width: 42.4 feet. Seven stories with basement. Brick.
Occupants:
Pianos. Electric Self Playing Piano Co. 1144 Bway & 46 E Houston (p. 870)
Tools Central Novelty. 46 E Houston (p. 1087)
Type Writers’ Supplies. Commercial Typewriter Co. 46 E Houston (p.1100)
Lithographer’s Colors and Inks. Hellmuth, Charles (agent for Kast & Ehinger). 48 E. Houston (p.674)
also listed under:
Bronze Powder. Hellmuth Charles. 48 E. Houston (agent for Kast & Ehinger). (p. 173)
Ink Printing. Hellmuth Charles (agent for Kast & Ehinger). 48 E Houston street. (p. 568)

Additional occupants at this address from the 1897 Trow's.
Electrical Instrument Manufacturers. N.Y. Accumulator & Electric Co. 150 Nassau & 46 E. Houston (p.388)
Machinery Dealers, Paper Box. Hobbs Mfg. Co. 46 E. Houston (p. 647)


E. Houston between Mulberry and Mott, North Side, Continued.

Building address: 50 E. Houston. Lot #: 22. Street front width: 20.9 feet. Brick. (Number of floors unspecified)
Occupants:
Delicatessen. Benderoth, Adam. 50 E Houston (p. 336)
Building address: 52 [through 56] E. Houston. Lot #: 21. (Note: On the map, this building continues to end of block and its division into specific addresses is unspecified.) Street front width: 64 feet. Brick. (Number of floors unspecified)
Boot & Shoemakers. Forgione Michael 52 E Houston (p. 125)
Wines, Liquor, and Lager Beer. Gerrety Thomas F. 56 E Houston (p. 1157)

E. Houston between Mulberry and Mott, South Side.

Building address: 41 E. Houston. Lot #: 19. Street front width: 21.3 feet. Brick. Five stories.
Occupants: (none encountered)
Building address: 43 E. Houston. Lot #: 20. Street front width: 20.9 feet. Brick. Three stories with basement.
Occupants:
Millinery Goods. Kaplan Max 43 E Houston (p. 717)
Publishers. Feigin & Minkowitz. 43 E Houston (p.893)

Building address: 45 E. Houston. Lot #: 21. Street front width: 22 feet. Brick. Four stories with basement.
Occupants: (none encountered)
Building address: 47 E. Houston. Lot #: 22. Street front width: 23.6 feet. Brick. Three stories with basement.
Occupants:
Tailors. Levy’s Henry, Son. 47 E Houston (p. 1057)
Building address: 49 E. Houston. Lot #: 23. Street front width: 24.7 feet. Brick with stone front. Five stories.
Occupants:
Feathers, Fancy & Military. Michelson, Pauline, 49 E Houston (p.447)
Bonnet & Hat Frames. Brandt ,Herman, 49 E Houston (p. 107)
also listed under:
Ladies’ and Children’s Caps. Brandt, Henry, 49 E. Houston. (p. 594)
Building address: 51 E. Houston. Lot #: 24. Street front width: 13.5? feet. Brick with stone front. (Number of floors, difficult to read)
Occupants: Barbers. Fischer, Otto. 51 E Houston (p. 74)
Building address: 53 E. Houston. Lot #: 25. Street front width: 25.1 feet. Brick with stone front. (Number of floors, difficult to read)
Occupants: (none encountered)

Building address: 55 E. Houston. Lot #: 26. Street front width: 25 feet. Brick with stone front. Five stories.
Occupants:
Clothes, Cleaners & C. Weiner, Morris. 55 E Houston (p. 281)
Cider & Vinegar. Baltheshofer, Gustav. 55 E. Houston; also wines & liquors. (p. 242)
also listed as:
Wines, Liquors & Lager Beer. Baltheshofer, Gustav, 55 E Houston (p.1145)

Sources: 

The Trow’s Business Directory of New York City (formerly Wilson’s) 1897 and 1898. The Trow Directory, Printing and Bookbinding Company, New York. At HathiTrust. 
Atlas of the city of New York, Manhattan Island. From actual surveys and official plans by George W. and Walter S. Bromley, 1897. From NYPL Map Warper. Free account required.

Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. Its sequel, set in 1890s Manhattan and titled A Predator's Game, features Nikola Tesla as a dective and will be available from Rook's Page Publishing, March 28, 2016.  (More details coming soon.)
His recent mystery, Never Kill A Friend, is available from Ransom Note Press. His epic poem, Two Mistakes, recently won second place in the Margaret Reid/Tom Howard Poetry Competition. He can be contacted at mdhillortiz@gmail.com.

Continue reading →