Telephone Exchanges by Pete Zizka 8-19-2023

These days, with almost everyone owning a cell phone, not much thought is given any longer to “wired telephones”. Even in houses that still have “hard wire” the telephone sets are probably wireless. But if you know someone who remembers back to a time when wiring was necessary, ask them how difficult it could be to wire all their home phones. Now, expand that thought to wiring entire cities and then the whole country. Willimantic and surrounding towns did not see the growth of telephone service until about 1880. The first phone service was provided by various telegraph companies and then by a number of phone companies. In 1883, Southern New England Telephone dominated the service in Eastern Connecticut and had workers extending lines throughout the city and the area. An 1894 “Willimantic Journal” article about businesses in Willimantic said,” Three lines for telegraphic communication are available — the Western Union, United Lines, and the Mutual Union. The telephone service is complete, and an electric light plant is in operation”. It is important to remember that for the earliest telephones, only one phone could be connected to another by wire, allowing their two owners to speak. But while that may have seemed like a godsend at one time, it became apparent that phones would be much more useful if one phone could connect to many other phones. And so…the telephone exchange came into being. The world’s first exchange belonged to the District Telephone Company of New Haven and opened in 1878. By May, 1882, Willimantic’s first telephone exchange was in partial operation and Southern New England Telephone was canvassing for subscribers. The Chronicle said, “It will be a part of the Connecticut telephone system which communicates with nearly all important places in the state.” The Chronicle went on to warn, “Be circumspect in the use of language when talking through the central office.”. By 1893, the Willimantic Linen Company had its own private exchange. Agent E.S. Boss’s office was equipped with ten lines by which he could communicate with offices in New York and Boston. Also connected were the purchasing agent’s office, the Spool Shop, the Winding Room and the No. 1, No. 3 and No. 4 mills. “The working of the system is so complete that the speaker’s voice seems to be intensified rather than deadened. By 1903, business had increased so much that SNET had to lease three rooms on the second floor of the Savings Institute. In 1914, SNET moved into its own quarters on High Street. By 1926, SNET had almost 4,000 subscribers on the Willimantic Exchange. On June 25, 1960 at 7:00 in the morning, Mayor Florimond J. Bergeron made the first “distance dial phone call” from the new Willimantic based switchboard. (today’s photo) On Bergeron’s left is Harry Chalmers, business manager and on the right, Charles Smith, the plant supervisor. There were approximately 9,000 telephones in Willimantic at that time. Every now and then, someone asks about Willimantic's phone exchange and how it got the name "HArrison". There was actually no local significance to it. In 1955, the Bell System issued a directive known as "Notes on Nationwide Dialing". The "notes" contained 4-6 possible names for every exchange starting with 22 all the way to 94. Willimantic's 423 had 4 other possibilities for names - GArden, GArfield (which went to Storrs' 429 exchange), HAmilton and HAzel. The list of names was pretty much alphabetical and so the lowest number exchanges (such as 22) got words from the beginning of the alphabet (like Columbia's ACademy) while higher numbers received names from as far down the alphabet such as Williams, Wilson and Windsor. People with “radio-telephones” were given Yukon, WYandott, WYndown or Wyman. The other possibilities for Columbia’s exchange were BAldwin, CApital and CAstle. Coventry got PIlgrim but could have had Pioneer, River(side), River(view), SHadyside or SHerwood. Lebanon’s possibilities were MIdway, Milton, MIssion, MItchell and NIagara. Finally, Stafford, which ended up with OVerland, could have had MUrdock, MUrray, MUseum, MUtual or OVerbrook”. <<HOME>>                    <<back to Historical Articles index>>