26 JUNE 27, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Ringing up some local phone history
BY THE OLD TIMER
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Alexander Graham Bell, who
was born in Scotland, invented
the telephone in 1876. The U.S.
government issued patents to him in
1876 and 1877. As we shall see, however,
Mr. Bell’s invention soon had an impact
on jobs in Ridgewood, Middle Village
and Bushwick.
In 1877, the Bell Telephone Company
was founded and later reorganized
as two entities: American Bell and
New England Telephone.
The early phones were of the
“hand crank” type that involved
the magneto system, with a small
generator contained inside the
telephone’s wooden box. When
used, the telephone placed a call
to a central exchange switchboard
that facilitated the connection to
another telephone.
The first commercial telephone
exchange opened in New Haven,
Connecticut, in 1878. It had 21
customers and operated as a
franchisee, under a license from
Bell Telephone. It’s interesting
to note that the first telephone
classified director also appeared in
New Haven.
Neighborhood connections
In 1879, the telephone company
opened its Brooklyn Central Office
and, in 1880, the Williamsburg
Exchange from which the first
telephone lines to Ridgewood,
Glendale, Maspeth and Middle
Village were installed.
Cord Meyer and
Company in Maspeth
was among the first
subscribers for
telephone service.
In 1882, the
American Bel l
Telephone Company
acquired a controlling
interest in the
Western Electric
Company.
The American
Telephone and
Telegraph Company
(AT&T) subsequently
was created as
a subsidiary of
American Bell to
establish and operate
a network of longdistance
telephone
lines. The company
was chartered in
New York state — the
starting point for
the long-distance network — in 1885
and the Western Electric Company
This Verizon telephone exchange building on Fairview Avenue in Ridgewood has been connecting callers around
the community for generations. Photo via PropertyShark/Christopher Bride
served as its manufacturing unit.
By 1900, AT&T had become
the parent company of the
Bell companies.
Locally, the first central telephone
office building in the Ridgewood/
Bushwick area opened in 1894 on
Greene Avenue near Broadway in
Bushwick. This office relieved the
Williamsburg and
Bedford-Stuyvesant
offices of some of the
telephone traffic.
Early in 1903, a new
and larger Bushwick
central office replaced
the old magneto
manual office. It had
20 operators and a
capacity for serving
1,600 customers,
which was five times
the capacity of the
old office.
As the residential
builders purchased
farmland and built
rows of brick houses
in Ridgewood, the
Bushwick central
office expanded, and
eventually, it had 66
operators serving
7,800 lines.
Calling the
exchange
On Jan. 5, 1918, a new telephone
center was established at 680
Fairview Ave. in Ridgewood, with
“Evergreen” as the exchange. In
1922, the “Juniper” exchange was
established in Fresh Pond, Maspeth
and part of Middle Village that
had previously been served by the
Newtown Central Office.
In 1925, the new “Hegeman” dial
central office went into operation,
which permitted dialing the call
rather than having the operator place
it for you. By 1936, “Evergreen 2,”
“Hegeman 3” and “Juniper 5” offices
were serving about 17,800 phones in
the Ridgewood area, handling about
47,500 calls per day.
During this period, the candlesticktype
telephone was in vogue. This
upright mode was popular during
the 1900s. before it gave way to the
“cradle,” Depression-era type of desk
phone that introduced a one-piece
handset.
The Wes tern Elec tric
advertisement presented in this
story originally appeared in a 1923
magazine. Note the “candlestick”
phone pictured in the ad.
In 1959, the Fairview Avenue
building in Ridgewood, with 10
dial offices, was serving 56,000
telephones and handling about
250,000 calls per day. The telephone
company decided to expand the
building in 1959 by adding a fourth
story to the three-story structure.
The “Empire 6” exchange was added
in December of that year.
The Ridgewood office was one of
the first to handle direct dialing.
By 1959, the following exchanges
had been added to local phone
service: “Evergreen 1,” “Evergreen
2,” “Evergreen 6,” “Glenmore 6,”
“Hyacinth 1,” “Hyacinth 7,” “Twining
4” and “Vandyke 1.” Thirty-three
operators handled “operatorassisted”
calls.
Eventually, the telephone company
did away with the names on the
exchanges and substituted numbers.
The “Twining 4” exchange is still in
existence as “894.”
Today, the telephone company
building on Fairview Avenue at the
corner of Gates Avenue exists as a
Verizon facility.
Middle Village manufacturer
In 1920, the C.B. French Company,
a manufacturer of telephone booths,
was located in Middle Village, south
of Metropolitan Avenue on a Long
Island Rail Road siding between the
present-day M train station and 65th
Lane. It had relocated there from its
previous spot on the banks of the
Newtown Creek.
The Turner-Armour Company,
which also manufactured telephone
booths, subsequently acquired
the C.B. French Company. They
continued to operate the plant in
Middle Village.
On Nov. 22, 1929, the Ridgewood
Times published a story with the
headline, “Western Electric takes
An example of the candlestick
phone set from the 1920s
link
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
