Alexander Graham Bell's Laboratory

Everyone knows that Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. (Or did he?) But did you know that he invented the telephone in Boston? Well, tucked inside the lobby of the Verizon Building fronting the south side of Post Office Square is Bell's laboratory, removed from the house on 109 Court Street where in 1876 he uttered his first words on the telephone: "Mr. Watson, come here. I want you." And thus, the era of telemarketers was born.

When the Court Street house in which Bell lived was torn down in the 1920s, the laboratory on the fifth floor was dismantled, and it has been reassembled inside the Verizon Building, an Art Deco structure that was built in the 1940s. The room was restored based on plans approved by Thomas Watson himself.

When you enter the Verizon Building, go to your right. On your right-hand side is a small room with a wooden interior. This rebuilt laboratory includes Bell's tools, patent application models, books on speech and hearing, work sketches, and his workbench. A window frame looks out onto a painting of the view of 1875 Boston that Bell would have seen from his workbench.

When you step inside the laboratory a short recorded narration begins to play, explaining the history of the laboratory, the invention of the telephone, and the artifacts on the workbench and in the display case. The display case includes the world's first commercial telephone and the first telephone switchboard. There is a replica of the transmitter-receiver that Bell used to utter his famous words and a replica of the telephone patent application. On the wall is a plaque that was placed by The Bostonian Society and the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company at 109 Court Street and unveiled by Bell himself in 1916. The plaque reads "Here the Telephone Was Born June 2nd 1875." That was the date that Bell and Watson first transmitted sound over the wires. (In addition to the Bell laboratory, there is a marker commemorating the first telephone on Cambridge Street.) The Verizon Building is located at 185 Franklin Street. While you're inside, also be sure to gaze at the amazing circular mural that rings the lobby. The artist was Dean Cornwell, and the mural is entitled Telephone Men and Women at Work and is 160 feet long.