Photo by Wikipedia user AgnosticPreachersKid.

The Volta Laboratory and Bureau, founded in the 1880s by Alexander Graham Bell, has been the home of research for deaf and hard of hearing persons. The building, located on 35th and Volta Place in the Georgetown neighborhood was built in 1893 and is a National Historic Landmark.

In 1879, Bell moved to D.C. with his wife Mabel Hubbard, who had been deaf from early childhood. The next year, the French government awarded Bell the Volta Prize and he used the money to start a trust and laboratory to help hard of hearing.

The building, a neoclassical Corinthian temple style building with golden yellow sandstone and Roman brick has architectural terracotta details. It stands out in Georgetown, as its Academic Revival style is uncommon in the neighborhood.

While the Volta Bureau’s assigned mission was to conduct research into deafness, Bell continued his other scientific and engineering endeavors. He did this mostly at his newer and larger laboratory in Nova Scotia.

The Volta Laboratory was actually dissolved by 1887, but turned into the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (also known as the AG Bell), and their work continues today under the new charter.