The building known as the Telephone Palace was built in 1933 according to the designs of the American architects Luis Weeks and Walter Froy. With a height of 53 meters, the building was for a long time the tallest building in Bucharest.
In the past, the Oteteleșanu house was located on this place. High society balls were held in a setting arranged in the Louis XV style, adorned with precious Smyrna or Aubusson carpets, with authentic tapestries and other valuable objects.
In his second marriage with Elena Văcărescu, Iancu Oteteleșanu, a nobleman with a large fortune and the concessionaire of all the state's salt mines, turned his house into a reception hall for the good world. No one was considered to have entered the Bucharest society if they were not invited to the Oteteleșanu house.
They danced to Strauss's waltzes, performed by Lizst, the unforgettable Viennese artist, held here by poverty and the burden of his 18 children.
Later, in the same building, the famous Oteteleșanu cafe and terrace was opened, which was appreciated by the writers and artists of the first decades of the last century.
One evening, Iancu Oteteleșanu wins the Măgurele estate at poker, where he decides to build a house similar to the one on the Mogoșoaie Bridge. In memory of this event, an ace of clubs is carved in stucco on the pediment of the house. Through his will, Oteteleșanu leaves the building in the care of the Romanian Academy. It is currently the property of the Institute of Atomic Physics.
Source: Bucharest, the capital of RSR (Ministry of Tourism, 1976)
