Last large manual telephone exchange?

[Jeff and Lisa]

Would anyone know what town in the US or Canada had the last manual
telephone exchange service, that was of a reasonable size? (That
is, not counting extremely isolated hamlets of just a few homes).

For the Bell System, it was Santa Catalina Island off of Calif.

[Alan Fowler]

I have no information about America, but the last
big manual (CB) exchange in Melbourne, Australia, was
Central with 13,000 lines and more telephonists than you can
imagine. it went out of service about 1960. There at least
two others in the suburbs, Windsor (CB) and Cheltenham
(magneto - wind the handle) - worked in all three of them.

regards, Alan.

[Watson A.Name]

Well, if you ask me, Avalon is just that, an extremely isolated hamlet
of just a few homes!!

Have you ever been to Sta. Catalina??

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[John R Levine]

>>Would anyone know what town in the US or Canada had the last manual
>>telephone exchange service, that was of a reasonable size? (That
>>is, not counting extremely isolated hamlets of just a few homes).
>>
>>For the Bell System, it was Santa Catalina Island off of Calif.

Avalon on Santa Catalina is indeed pretty small. As far as I know,
the last manual ILEC exchange was in Bryant Pond ME, where there was a
"don't yank the crank" campaign by locals who were either nostalgic or
were quite aware that a manual exchange can provide much better
service than an automated one. (Typical example, automatic call
forwarding: when my mother called home from college in the 1940s, the
operator would advise her "your mother's playing bridge at the
So-and-so's", and would ring her there).

I dunno what was the last manual urban exchange, which you might define
as one with multiple operators working the same range of numbers.

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John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 387 6869
jo...@iecc.com, Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner, http://iecc.com/johnl,
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[Jim Haynes]

I visited a manual C.O. in Crockett, CA (SF Bay Area) circa 1970 on the
last day it was in operation. Crockett isn't a very big place, but it
was big enough to have a multiple switchboard.

[Grover C. McCoury III]

FYI: The last manual telephone switch (not sure of size) in the USA
(Maine) was retired in 1975.

Jeff and Lisa wrote:

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[Bill]

Fort Polk was served by a manual CO out of Leesville, LA. I was at Ft.
Polk attending Basic Training in the summer of 1974. The public
telephones common battery signaling sets. No dial pad, just a stndard
G type hand set that was picked up (No dialtone), where you just
waited for the operator to answer your "light." All local pay phone
callss were 5 cents.

Catalina was converted by PT&T in 1976 with a #2ESS switch.

In 1977 I visited a village in southern Greece that had a local
battery ringdown (Crank) telephone for the entire village. They went
automatic dial, again only one telephone for the entire village, in
1981-82. The village finally received individual drops sometime in
1988. So much for the Greek OTE.

Bill

[Ed Ellers]

John R Levine <jo...@iecc.com> wrote:

"I dunno what was the last manual urban exchange, which you might define as
one with multiple operators working the same range of numbers."

That's a toughie. The last manual office in Louisville, Kentucky -- on
Bardstown Road in the Highlands -- didn't close down until 1959, meaning
that it took 28 years or so to convert the entire city to dial service (we
didn't get the first SXS switch until the early 1930s because of delays in
Southern Bell buying out the local independent, Home Telephone). The served
lines were cut over to an existing No. 5 crossbar office further south on
Bardstown Road, which interestingly was one of the first COs in the area to
support Touch-Tone; it was replaced by a 1A ESS in 1982, and that in turn
was replaced by a 5ESS-2000 in 1996 (why, I still don't know).

[kani...@gmail.com]

Jeff and Lisa, when I worked for the bell system I remember that the last manual telephone exchange in the USA was ford Kansas which I think converted to rotary dial in the late 80s. The whole town was against the change as it showed a little elderly lady on a t.v special standing in front of her very antiquated wooden wall phone. The few merchants in the town insisted upon the change finally as it showed the vet in town and the fact that he could not keep in touch with his clients as needed. It was funny bet for years the bell system would treated these little towns with disconnecting their toll lines if they did not go dial. Ford Kansas people said ,go ahead!! They called their bluff and won because had the bell system pulled the plug on their toll circuits and were prevented from calling other communities in an emergency, they were risking an eminent law suit. I cheered them on even though I worked for bell! They were a powerful lobby years ago but it was probably the best job that I have ever had. Just thought you all may be interested. Dave...@outlook.com

[David Kaye]

<kani...@gmail.com> wrote

==end quote==

I'm not sure the exact date, but I remember in the 1980s the town of San
Gregorio on the San Mateo Coast, about 50 miles south of San Francisco still
had manual dial. They didn't have a CO per se. If you picked up the phone
at Alsford's General Store ("San Gregorio #2", I believe) or went to the pay
phone (I think it was "San Gregorio #6"), you were connected to the
international and marine operator in Oakland. So, a call from SF to San
Gregorio was actually a local call because it was technically a call to
Oakland.

I remember trying to phone the general store to get weather conditions for
the beach because the beach there was in a cove and subject to very
different weather than the rest of the coast (some miles south of the
well-known Maverick's surfing spot). I'd have to call 00 to reach the long
distance/international operator. Then I'd ask for "San Gregorio #2". "2
what?" "San Gregorio is a toll office and the number is 2." "Is this in
the Americas?" "Yes, it's just south of San Mateo." "What country is
that?" "The United States." I'd go through much the same song and dance
trying to reach the number whenever I wanted to reach the general store.

By the late 80s or so, they finally just said the hell with it and extended
the Half Moon Bay dial office (650-726) to include San Gregorio.




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[LdB]

On 1/25/2015 5:57 AM, David Kaye wrote:
> <kani...@gmail.com> wrote
>
> Jeff and Lisa, when I worked for the bell system I remember that the last
> manual telephone exchange in the USA was ford Kansas which I think converted
> to rotary dial in the late 80s.

> I'm not sure the exact date, but I remember in the 1980s the town of San
> Gregorio on the San Mateo Coast, about 50 miles south of San Francisco still
> had manual dial.

> http://www.avast.com
>

Those old steppers were a marvel of longevity. Back in the 80's I had
the "pleasure" of occasionally working on an old stepper PBX that had
a brass 1919 installation date tag on its wooden frame. I don't
imagine many of the new electronic offices will last sixty or seventy
years.

> the best job that I have ever had

No argument there. :)

LdB

[0929m...@gmail.com]

I know the last manual city was Huntington, Indiana. We still had an operator answer when we picked up the phone to give our 4 digit number to connect us. This changed in the early 60's. I know this because my mom who was a telephone operator was part of the transition team. This was about 64 or 65.

[0929m...@gmail.com]

Oh and Huntington was a city of around 25,000 people

[Thomas Horne]

On Thursday, March 10, 2016 at 10:37:48 PM UTC-5, 0929m...@gmail.com wrote:
> Oh and Huntington was a city of around 25,000 people

The last manual telephone exchange in the United States of America was in Bryant Pond Maine. It was automated in 1983. The owner's hung on to manual service because they were not willing to lay off they're 20 operators. They made the transition to an automated exchange when the workload had grown enough to keep the operators employed on a mix of other work.