On what date did a fire destroy Tesla's South Fifth Avenue laboratory?

A fire destroyed Tesla’s South Fifth Avenue laboratory on 13 March 1895.

The laboratory occupied the fourth floor of the building at 33–35 South Fifth Avenue in New York City. The fire began during the early morning, reportedly in the building’s lower levels, and became intense enough to destroy Tesla’s workspace and collapse the floor. His equipment, models, papers, experimental records, and demonstration apparatus were lost, including items connected with his celebrated 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition displays.

The disaster was especially damaging because the laboratory contained years of work on high-frequency and high-voltage electricity, as well as machinery connected with Tesla’s alternating-current research. Contemporary reports emphasized that the property was not insured. Tesla told the New York Times that he was too grief-stricken to discuss the loss.

The fire did not end his career. By July 1895, Tesla had established a new laboratory at 46–48 East Houston Street, where he resumed experiments and later pursued wireless transmission and high-frequency electrical research. The date is sometimes confused with the opening of his Colorado Springs laboratory, which came in 1899.