Changing from a switchboard operator to rotary phones
- Individual photos and full text of article is available below.
- First printed in Baldwin City Community News, June 2, 2022. Reprinted with permission.
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Photos:
Text of Article
Treasures From The Kansas Room By Marta Jardon, Santa Fe Trail Historical Society – Baldwin City Community News, June 2, 2022.
The Big Phone Switch in Baldwin City – 1960
November 1960 ushered Baldwin City into a new era of the telephone usage system. The front page of the November 10, 1960, Baldwin Ledger proclaimed, “the lamp signals of the old manually operated switchboard will blink out for the last time” with the “inauguration of the modern dial telephone system” in a few days. Mayor Ray Lawrence A. Lamb would be making the first call using the new dialing system at 2:00 p.m. on November 15, 1960.
This modernization brought many changes. No longer would phone numbers be only one, two, or three digits long. Now phone numbers consisted of seven digits, each beginning with 594, with all seven digits needing to be dialed! (By the mid-1960s, this had changed and only the last five digits needed to be dialed when calling within Baldwin City.) One great benefit of the new system was that customers could now keep their same phone number when moving between the city and rural communities.
No one had seen or used rotary telephones before this time. This edition of the newspaper, and several to follow, contained many instructions about using these phones. Every detail was explained to the new users such as, “Place your finger in the opening of the dial through which the FIGURE ‘5’ is seen. Draw the dial around in a clockwise direction until your finger strikes the stop.” This information was also presented, “If you make a mistake while dialing…hang up the receiver for a few seconds then lift the receiver and begin dialing again.” Descriptions of the “tone signals” used by the phone were also given. For example, “the ‘Dial Tone’ is a steady ‘humming’ sound. It is the phone’s way of saying ‘number please’.” Information about making calls was also given such as, “Listen for at least 7 rings to give your party time to answer his telephone,” or, if “the ‘Busy Tone’ (sounds like an interrupted ‘Buzz-Buzz-Buzz’) is heard after dialing it means the line is busy. Hang up the receiver and call a few minutes later.”
The Ledger also reported that “modernization will be more evident in rural” areas. The Worden area would have telephone access to Baldwin for the first time. Party lines would now be limited to 10 or less parties – makes one wonder how many folks could be on the line before this! And probably the biggest improvement of all for those on the party lines was the change in the telephone ringing system. Now ONLY the CALLED telephone on a party line would ring – no other phone would ring! I imagine this greatly cut down on the “listening in” of calls.
On November 15, 1960, a little before 2:00 p.m., Mayor Lamb called his mother in Leon, Kansas using the new rotary telephone system. Elmer Wintermantel completed the first rural call from Worden to Baldwin. A week or so after the transition to the new telephone system, the new Telephone Building at 716 Indiana Street was opened. (Prior to this, the Telephone Building had been at 813 Eighth Street where Ski’s Barber Shop is currently located). Mrs. Don (Lucille) McMullen, mother of Alice Gurley, had been a telephone switchboard operator in Baldwin since 1954. She would manage the new office. Southwestern Bell operators in Lawrence would handle any calls needing operator assistance. Don Ulsha, who had worked for the Baldwin phone company as a plant man for many years, would also continue at the new building.
The Baldwin City Public Library invites you to learn about “vintage rotary phones” with your own, hand-on experience. Copies of the original 1960 dialing directions are on display along with several phones for your use. Come relive old memories or try your hand at rotary phones for the first time! You will learn why women with nice fingernails used pencils to dial the phone. And you’ll quickly see why everyone was so excited when the “Touch Tone” phones came about. (Phone experience available during regular library hours.)
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Looking for Baldwin or local history? Or want to contribute to it? Come to The Kansas Room!
The Santa Fe Trail Historical Society of Douglas County has been preserving and promoting the history of the Baldwin, Vinland, and Southern Douglas County area in addition to the Trail since 1967. Visit the website at www.santafetraildouglas.org.
–Updated 1/2025
