463 West Street

In 1907, Theodore Vail concentrated all of the research and development activities of the Bell System at the Western Electric plant at 463 West Street, New York. Eighteen years later, this building became the headquarters of a new company, jointly owned by AT&T and Western Electric, called Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc.

There are now apartments at 463 West Street; what used to be Western Electric is now Lucent Technologies, Avaya, and Agere Systems; and AT&T is being bought by SBC in a sort of reverse-Saturn-devouring-his-offspring move.

Times in telecommunications continue to be interesting, and I hope this blog can contribute some small amount of insight, with some historical perspective.