Southwestern Bell Main Dial Building

Last updated
Southwestern Bell Main Dial Building
Tulsa OK Southwestern Bell Main Dial Building.jpg
Southwestern Bell Main Dial Building in 2005, 5th Street and Detroit Avenue, Tulsa.
Location5th Street and Detroit Avenue
Built1924 (Phase 1) 1930 (Phase 2)
ArchitectBen Ball, I. R. Timlin
Architectural styleGothic Revival (Phase 1); Zig Zag Art Deco (Phase 2)
NRHP reference # 84003445
Added to NRHPJune 22, 1984

The Southwestern Bell Telephone Company constructed a two-story building in 1924. The structure, which encompassed 18,726 square feet (1,739.7 m2), was to house the main dial equipment for the new automatic dial equipment that the company had introduced to Tulsa in November 1924. The architecture of the building was Gothic Style. In 1930, the company added four floors to the top of the 1924 structure to house its divisional offices and toll terminal equipment needed for the underground cable that connected Tulsa with Oklahoma City. The 1930 addition was constructed in Zig Zag Art Deco Style. [1]

Contents

Building description

Southwestern Bell intended to build a two-story building to house its new automatic dial equipment in 1924. However, company engineers expected to add more stories in the future as the Tulsa telephone system expanded. They specified that the initial support structure be capable of carrying at least seven more stories. [2]

The original two-story building was designed using Gothic Style architecture, which was then in vogue in the United States. The exterior was covered in light brown brick. The first floor has large arched windows framed with terra cotta. The color of the frames matches that of the quoins that reach to the top of the second floor. The second-floor windows are rectangular and separated by brick panels decorated with terra cotta torches. The second floor spandrels are made of buff-colored terra cotta tile. [2]

Addition to NRHP

Southwestern Bell Dial Telephone building was added to the National Register of Historic Places under criteria A and C on June 22, 1984. Its reference number is 84003445. [1]

National Register of Historic Places federal list of historic sites in the United States

The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property.

Early history of telephone service in Tulsa

The U. S. Army installed the first telephone system in Indian Territory in 1879, between Fort Sill and Fort Reno, to support its operations to control the native tribes. By 1879, the Cherokee Nation installed the first commercial system in Indian Territory to connect the tribal offices in Talequah and Muskogee to the Five Civilized Tribes agency at Muskogee. This system also connected to Fort Gibson. [2]

Cherokee Nation Domestic dependent nation

The Cherokee Nation, also known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It was established in the 20th century and includes people descended from members of the Old Cherokee Nation who relocated from the Southeast due to increasing pressure to Indian Territory and Cherokee who were forced to relocate on the Trail of Tears. The tribe also includes descendants of Cherokee Freedmen and Natchez Nation. Over 299,862 people are enrolled in the Cherokee Nation, with 189,228 living within the state of Oklahoma. According to Larry Echo Hawk, former head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the current Cherokee Nation is not the historical Cherokee tribe but instead a "successor in interest".

Robert H. Hall built a system in Tulsa that connected 80 subscribers in 1899. Hall sold his system in 1903 to the Vinita-based Indian Territory Telephone Company, which was bought by Pioneer Company on July 8, 1904. Pioneer is considered the forerunner of Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. [3] [lower-alpha 1]

Hall's business was a manually operated switchboard in an office on the second floor of a building at the northwest corner of First Street and Main. Lines to and from the switch board ran from the board through a window to a telephone pole outside the building. [3]

After Pioneer bought the system, the main office and switchboard moved to the second floor of the Bynum Building at the northwest corner of Second Street and Main. By 1906, the Pioneer system served 280 telephones. [3] In 1924, Tulsans had 18,726 telephones, increasing to 41,471 by 1930. [2]

Notes

  1. The Arkansas Valley Telephone Company began connecting Oklahoma towns in 1897. Its name changed to the Pioneer Telephone Company in 1902, and to the Pioneer Telephone and Telegraph Companyin 1904. Pioneer controlled twenty-five Oklahoma exchanges after mergers with Shawnee's Long Distance Telephone Company and the North American Telephone and Telegraph Company of Muskogee, In 1905 Pioneer purchased the Missouri and Kansas Telephone Company and became part of the national Bell System.

Related Research Articles

The Pacific Bell Telephone Company is a telephone company that provides telephone service in California. The company is owned by AT&T Inc. through AT&T Teleholdings. The company has been known by a number of names during which its service area has changed. The formal name of the company from the 1910s through the 1984 Bell System divestiture was The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company. As of 2002, the name “Pacific Bell” is no longer used in marketing, Pacific Bell is still the holder of record for the infrastructure of cables and fiber through much of California.

The New York Telephone Company (NYTel) was organized in 1896, taking over the New York City operations of the American Bell Telephone Company.

Midland Valley Railroad

The Midland Valley Railroad (MV) was incorporated on June 4, 1903 for the purpose of building a line from Hope, Arkansas, through Muskogee and Tulsa, Oklahoma to Wichita, Kansas. It was backed by C. Jared Ingersoll, a Philadelphia industrialist who owned coal mining properties in Indian Territory. The railroad took its name from Midland, Arkansas, a coal mining town in western Arkansas, which was served by the railroad. The Midland Valley gained access to Fort Smith, Arkansas via trackage rights over the Frisco from Rock Island, Oklahoma.

CenturyLink Building

The CenturyLink Building in Minneapolis, Minnesota was completed in 1932 and became the tallest building to be built in the city during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Named for its current owner, it was previously known as the Qwest Building and the Northwestern Bell Telephone Building. Originally standing 346 feet (105 m) tall, the structure grew to 416 feet (127 m) with the addition of a microwave antenna "crown" in 1958, followed by the addition of a second tier of microwave antennas in 1972. It was the second-tallest building in the city after the slightly older Foshay Tower for many years, and stands slightly taller than the tower of its neighbor, Minneapolis City Hall.

Stuber–Stone Building

The Stuber–Stone Building is located at 4221–4229 Cass Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. It is now known as the Stuberstone Lofts.

Detroit–Columbia Central Office Building

The Detroit–Columbia Central Office Building is a building located at 52 Selden Street in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. It is also known as the Michigan Bell Telephone Exchange. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

Eddystone Building

The Eddystone Building is a former hotel located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan at 100-118 Sproat Street. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

Telephone exchange telecommunications system used in public switched telephone networks or in large enterprises

A telephone exchange is a telecommunications system used in the public switched telephone network or in large enterprises. An exchange consists of electronic components and in older systems also human operators that interconnect (switch) telephone subscriber lines or virtual circuits of digital systems to establish telephone calls between subscribers.

Ed Edmondson United States Courthouse Government building in Muskogee, Oklahoma

The Ed Edmondson United States Courthouse, previously called the Muskogee Federal Building- United States Courthouse, is a historic government building in Muskogee, Oklahoma. It was built in 1915 as a post office and federal courthouse. Although it is no longer used as a post office, it is currently in use by several government offices, including the U.S. Marshals and U.S. Probation Office as well as the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

Union Electric Telephone & Telegraph

The Union Electric Telephone & Telegraph is a historic building located in a small-scale commercial area just north of downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1983.

Yonkers Trolley Barn

The former Yonkers Trolley Barn is located on Main Street in Yonkers, New York, United States. It is a massive steel frame brick building in the Renaissance Revival style built at the beginning of the 20th century. In 2002 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the last remaining trolley barn in Westchester County and the only remnant of Yonkers' trolley system.

General Post Office, Zagreb

The General Post Office in Jurišićeva Street, Zagreb, is the headquarters of the Croatian Post, the national postal service of Croatia. Built in 1904 in the Hungarian Secession style, the Post Office housed mail, parcel, telegraph and telephone services and equipment. Today, it is a protected cultural monument.

Istanbul Postal Museum Postal museum in Istanbul, Turkey

The Istanbul Postal Museum, aka PTT Museum Istanbul, is a postal museum dedicated to the historical development of mail and telecommunication services in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey, exhibiting related equipment and instruments as well as a collection of postage stamps. It was established in 2000 by the Turkish Post, and is situated inside the Grand Post Office building at Sirkeci quarter of Fatih district in Istanbul, Turkey.

Civic Center Financial District

The Civic Center Financial District is a historic district composed of five buildings near the intersection of Colorado Boulevard and Marengo Avenue in Pasadena, California. The Security Pacific Building and the Citizens Bank Building are located at the intersection itself and considered the centerpieces of the district, while the MacArthur, Mutual, and Crown Buildings are located on North Marengo. The buildings, which were built between 1905 and 1928, are all architecturally significant buildings used by financial institutions in the early 20th century.

Poncan Theatre theater and movie theater in Ponca City, Oklahoma, United States

The Poncan Theatre is a historic theater in Ponca City, Oklahoma. It is individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is a contributing property of the Downtown Ponca City Historic District.

Philcade Building

The Philcade Building is an office building in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma at the southeast corner of East 5th Street and South Boston Avenue. Designed by Leon B. Senter, for oilman Waite Phillips, it was begun in 1929 and completed in 1931. It is noted for its Art Deco zigzag style architecture. The building was listed in the National Register on September 18, 1986, under National Register Criterion C. Its NRIS number is 86002196. It is also a contributing property of the Oil Capital Historic District in Tulsa.

Ambassador Hotel (Tulsa, Oklahoma)

General Patrick Hurley opened the Ambassador Hotel in 1929, intending it to be a luxury "extended stay" residence for Tulsa businessmen, who were building mansions that were not yet ready for occupancy. Hurley never stayed in the hotel he founded. He moved to Washington, D. C. in March 1929, after President Herbert Hoover chose him to be Secretary of War, after the death of the previous Secretary, who died in December 1929. Hurley never returned to Tulsa.

Seligs Dry Goods Company Building

Selig's Dry Goods Company Building, also known as Morrisons/Em-roe Sporting Goods Company, is a historic commercial building located at Indianapolis, Indiana. It was built in 1924, and is a seven-story, rectangular, Beaux-Arts style building with a white terra cotta and aluminum front facade. It was remodeled in 1933. The building features tinted plate glass windows and a terra cotta Roman thermal window-like screen at the top floor. The building housed the Selig's Dry Goods Company, in operation until 1933.

Gabriel Richard Building

The Gabriel Richard Building, also known as the Weil and Company Building, is high-rise located at 305 Michigan Avenue in Downtown Detroit, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017. The building will open as a residential apartment building known as the Gabriel Houze in late 2017.

Pythian Building

The Gillette-Tyrrell Building was begun in 1929 by two Tulsa oilmen, J. M. Gillette and H. C. Tyrrell. They initially planned to construct a three-story office building at 432 S. Boulder Avenue, topped by a ten-story hotel. The Great Depression intervened in the following year, when the two oilmen were financially ruined. They stopped construction at the third floor. In 1931, they sold it to the Knights of Pythias, who decided to complete it as an office building and renamed it the Pythian Building.

References

  1. 1 2 Tulsa Preservation Commission, "Southwestern Bell Main Dial Building." Accessed July 19, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form." United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service. February 28, 1984.Accessed July 20, 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 "Tulsa's Telephone History." April 24, 2014. Accessed July 19, 2015.