Tesla's New York Lab Burnt To Ashed in 1895

Tesla became independently rich and had the time and resources to pursue his own interests thanks to the money he received from licensing his AC patents. Tesla left the Liberty Street store Peck and Brown had rented in 1889, and for the following twelve years he operated out of a number of workshop/laboratory locations in Manhattan. The fourth floor of 33-35 South Fifth Avenue (1892-1895), the sixth and seventh levels of 46 & 48 East Houston Street (1895-1902) and a lab at 175 Grand Street (1889-1892) were a few of them. In these workshops, Tesla and his hired help produced some of his most important work.

Unluckily, something occurred to one of his labs. The South Fifth Avenue structure that housed Tesla's lab caught fire early on March 13, 1895. Tesla's fourth-story laboratory burnt and collapsed into the second level due to the intensity of the fire that originated in the building's basement. Tesla's ongoing efforts were delayed by the fire, which also lost a number of early study notes, models, and demonstration pieces, many of which had been displayed during the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Tesla told The New York Times, “I am in too much grief to talk. What can I say?”. Tesla rebuilt his lab on the sixth and seventh floors after the fire, moving to 46 & 48 East Houston Street.