Rare Details Of RCA’s First Reseach Lab…7 Van Cortlandt Park South

Finally! The RCA New York Lab Address Was 7 Van Cortlandt Park South….

Since the first pictures of Felix The Cat on the mechanical television turntable set began to be seen on this page over 5 years ago, people have asked me where that Van Cortlandt Park testing facility was.

Finally, today I found out in a book written about Dr. Zworykin. Now that I had that, I did more digging and found this two page article in a 1956 Radio Age Magazine. This was the first RCA lab and testing facility. It was built by RCA in 1924 and was their technical HQ, until the move to Camden in 1930.

This is where among many other things, magnetic loudspeakers were invented, and it was the first home of W2XBS television. -Bobby Ellerbee

On page 10 of this 1956 Radio Age, there is a short but sweet description of a “unicorn”…the rarely mentioned but very important Van Cortlandt Park lab and research center, which was RCA’s first. There, W2XBS (now WNBC) came to life, as did the first ever magnetic coil loudspeakers and much more!