New Yorkers Rally Around 1902 Tesla Laboratory
By Margaret Foster | Online Only | June 17, 2009
Supporters of Nikola Tesla's Wardenclyffe, above, hold signs that spell "This Place Matters." In the National Trust for Historic Preservation's "This Place Matters" campaign, People from across the country are honoring their favorite places, making a call to protect, enhance and enjoy the places that matter.
Credit: Office of New York Senator Kenneth P. LaValle
As soon as [the Wardenclyffe laboratory is] completed, it will be possible [to] talk to any telephone subscriber on the globe … . An inexpensive instrument, not bigger than a watch, will enable its bearer to hear anywhere, on sea or land, music or song, the speech of a political leader, the address of an eminent man of science, or the sermon of an eloquent clergyman, delivered in some other place, however distant. In the same manner any picture, character, drawing, or print can be transferred from one to another place."
—Nikola Tesla, "The Future of the Wireless Art," Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony: Popularly Explained, 1908
Last month, more than 150 people, including New York state officials, gathered in Shoreham, N.Y., to demonstrate support for an abandoned 1905 science laboratory designed by Stanford White.
Built by Nikola Tesla, known as the "father of radio" and the inventor of the remote control, the laboratory, once flanked by a 187-foot-tall tower, was intended to deliver free wireless electricity. Thwarted by a lack of funds, Tesla never completed the project, and the tower was torn down in 1917. White's 94-by-94-foot Italianate building, abandoned since 1992, has since been vandalized and is now for sale.
Nikola Tesla's friend Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White designed the Italian Renaissance building that still stands on the 16-acre site in Shoreham, N.Y.
Credit: Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe
"It was very gratifying and reaffirming," says Jane Alcorn, president of a grassroots group called the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, organizers of the May 30 rally, whose theme centered on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's "This Place Matters" campaign. "We are working to save something that the community believes in and that politicians came together on."
Locals became concerned last December, when Agfa Corporation, owner of the lab and 16 surrounding acres, placed the property on sale for $1,650,000. In an advertisement, the corporation announced that the land could be "delivered fully cleared and level" (it has since been changed). According to Agfa's real estate agent, John O'Hara of Corporate Realty Services, the company only offered to tear down modern industrial structures on site.
"None of the prospective purchasers have asked for it to be cleared, and actually that offer is off the table—to deliver the land [without buildings]," O'Hara says. "There was no intention from the seller to knock down the Wardenclyffe building."
Still, whenever an unprotected building changes hands, there is a chance that a new buyer will destroy it, Alcorn says.
"This was a crossroads for us," she says. "We were concerned that a potential buyer could [demolish the building]," Alcorn says. "We were concerned that Agfa, trying to accommodate a buyer, would try to do that. We were concerned that a potential buyer would deny public access. It's always been off limits to us."
Alcorn's group hopes to buy the laboratory building (boarded up at their request) and restore it as an interactive science museum chronicling Tesla's work. "The original structure is still there, in relatively good condition," says Alcorn, who toured the site with O'Hara in February. "Obviously it would need work."
Alcorn has been involved in the struggle to save Wardenclyffe for 15 years. "I haven't wanted to give up on it; it's just too lovely a building."
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Comments
Submitted by Christena at: June 18, 2009
Tesla's work gave us alternating current electric power (AC) systems, including the polyphase power distribution systems and the AC motor, as well as the radio. The inventor's lab needs to be preserved to ensure that the genius of him is not ever forgotten. Tesla was by far one of the greatest inventor's of his time - who has been unrecognized for his genius - compared to Edison...
Submitted by Brian at: June 18, 2009
I hope it gets saved. No need to senselessly destroy historic buildings.