195 Broadway

195 Broadway is a 29-story building on Broadway in the Financial District of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It was the longtime headquarters of American Telephone and Telegraph, as well as Western Union for a time. It occupies an entire block on one side of Broadway, running from Dey Street to Fulton Street. It also has the address 15 Dey Street, well known as the site of one end of the first transcontinental telephone call. The same building, using the "195 Broadway" address, was the New York end of the first intercity Picturephone call in 1927 and of the first transatlantic telephone call, made to London, England, also in 1927.

195 Broadway is also known as the Telephone Building, Telegraph Building, or Western Union Building, due to its history. The building is still in use.

Planning and construction

From 1885 to 1910, AT&T was headquartered at 125 Milk Street in Boston.

The building at 195 Broadway was constructed under the leadership of AT&T's president Theodore Newton Vail, who had taken the AT&T helm in 1907 and added the same title at Western Union in 1909 when that firm was purchased by AT&T. In 1912, Vail developed a two-phase plan for a 29-story headquarters building that would be constructed on Broadway on the block stretching from Dey Street to Fulton Street. The plan entailed constructing one wing on the Dey Street corner, followed by the second wing on the Fulton Street corner.