I love the history of telephone systems – the way they grew from tiny separated systems, with a wire connecting two buildings, into town-wide networks, then regional, then national.
The Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in Peterborough, published a nice look at how they grew in several towns in southern New Hampshire. Nice memories of the importance of the local operator and the arrival of automatic switching.
You can read it here.
Return to the Concord Monitor
At the end of the Ledger-Transcript article is:
“The last Magneto village switchboard in use in New Hampshire was in Meriden. Meriden didn’t cut over to dial until 1973. In the United States, the last Magneto was unplugged on Oct. 10, 1983, in Bryant Pond, Maine.”
I remember hearing about the Bryant Pond cut-over on the news when it was about to happen. I was stunned that there was still a Magneto system still in use.
Back in the day, the telephone operator were located in the second floor now Union Coffee House. When I picked up the phone the operator said “number please” I would say “615 please” to call my grandparents. My best friend number was 8976W a party line.
Then, later the dial phones came along.
Those were the days!