12 Hancock Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63125
314-416-8004
Admission: Varies from free to $5.00. Parking is free.
www.jbtelmuseum.org
Opened in May 2016
This museum is housed in a restored building that is part of the Jefferson (Barracks) Historic Site now owned by St. Louis County. The building was originally constructed in 1896 as a two-family duplex in the Officers' Row. Members of the Telecom Pioneers, a telephone company employee service organization, and their families and friends spent over 66,500 hours in repairing and renovating both floors of the building.
The volunteers also collected the many historical items that fill up the 4+ rooms on the first floor. It took them 13 years from when they first rented the building in 2003 to complete the building and the displays and then to open the museum to the public. Needless to say, there are many phones housed here.
The group decided at the beginning to make sure that there was a display card with each item to describe the item in detail. As you can see below, they were true to this decision.
The oldest phones are in wooden cases and have cranks. First introduced in the 1890s, this phone ran on 6 inch, 1.5 volt dry cell batteries . Today a 1.5 volt battery is MUCH smaller!
This wooden crank phone was commonly used on party lines.
The next phones were in the style of candlesticks. This Western Electric Scissor Arm Candlestick, c. 1915, was most likely used by railroad dispatchers or telephone operators.
This is the first automatic dial telephone and was invented about 1905. This invention allowed customers to call others directly rather than to go through an operator.
The bells and the wiring of the candlestick phones were in a separate box - a ringer box.
This model 102, about 1927, replaced the candlestick in that the transmitter and the receiver were in the same handset. A ringer box was still needed.
The model 302 came in 1936 and was the first widely used telephone to not require the ringer box.
In 1949 the model 500 rotary phone replaced all the 300 phones and became the standard for the Bell System.
By the 1950s phones were available with multiple line capability for use in offices.
Ornate covers could be purchased for the rotary dial phone back in the day when you were required to rent your phone from Western Electric if you were in the Bell system.
In 1959 came the Princess phone!
In 1965 came the trimline. The dial was moved from the telephone's base to the underside of the handset.
The 1960s was the first attempt at speed dialing with the rotary card dialer. This model eventually was phased out when it became evident that it didn't dial any faster.
In 1966 Touch Tone keypads now become available on the Trimline phones.
Circa late 1970s, this was one of Western Electrics Design Line telephones. This model could be used as a blackboard or a bulletin board.
In the 1980s came the first cordless phone!
The 1980s also brought a clear desk phone.
The museum has some wonderful old pay phones including this three coin pay station dating back to 1909.
This three slot pay phone dates to the 1950s.
This large case below had 8 compartments, allowing a phone company employee to go to 8 payphones and retrieve a coin box from each. When full, the box weighed a great deal.
Visitors to the museum can drop coins into this three-slot phone and listen to the sounds that tell the operator which coin was put into the phone.
On display are these two counter top pay phones - one from the United States and one from Japan.
The museum has a number of specialty phones such as this one used for emergencies. The phone had a direct line to the police or fire departments.
The two phones below are among those in the museum's military phone display.
This bag phone - an early cell-type phone, was popular among women who appreciated not having to get out of their car if they needed to call for help.
The museum has a number of switch stations. This step by step central office switch was invented in 1888 with the first exchange opening in 1892. The phones placed in front of the switch allow museum visitors to place a call and actually see how the switches work.
Later an operator, with a headset, of course, would sit in front of this small switch station below to connect calls.
This 1949 manual single position switchboard was one of several in the United States equipped for the POTUS. This one was used when a President visited St. Louis. The box in the top center gave the POTUS and other high government officials sole access to the use of the switchboard.
This plaque acknowledges which Presidents used it.
The museum displays many unique and stylish phones including this Swedish phone from the late 1950s which was referred to as a "cobra" phone. When you replaced the phone on a table the red button on the the bottom would be depressed and disconnect the call.
This wave design telephone, circa 1980s with a checkerboard keypad was probably Japanese made.
An entire case is filled with novelty phones, some of which are seen in the five pictures below. This Star Trek 1993 USS Enterprise Telephone is an exact replica of the original USS Enterprise™ NCC-1701. When the telephone rings, interior warp nacelles light up. Features include choice of a normal ringer or Star Trek® red alert sounds.
Children love these phones!
And my favorites...
Several displays are dedicated to the equipment and tools used to install, repair, maintain, and run the phones. Circa early 1900s, this ornate voltmeter was made by Weston Electric Company. The meter measured 0-40 volts and was used in Central Offices to measure the voltage on equipment and circuits.
This phone pole displays the equipment associated with working on the pole to access wires.
The arrow pointing up indicates the pole is safe to climb. The arrow going down tells the lineman that the pole has failed inspection and should not be climbed. The many tools in the pole make evident why phone poles have so many holes in them.
In the construction and maintenance of aerial cable, it was necessary to work along the supporting strand so a small trolley-like vehicle called a "cable car" was used. It consisted of a light, steel frame mounted on two rubber-tired wheels and supported a wooden seat by means of short chains and snap hooks.
An entire room is devoted to a display of tools used by the phone company.
For example, this is a standard technician tool belt, leather pouch with electrical shears, and a utility pouch.
These are cans of wire splice kits used for repairing buried cable.
This is a cable line hook tool.
The museum recognizes different "homes" for phones. This telephone table, or "gossip bench" as it was called, is a great example of a piece of furniture that many of us had in our homes growing up.
No telephone museum is complete without a phone booth such as this great example of an old wooden one that lights up when one starts to pull the door closed. The museum also has a phone booth from the old Busch stadium.
The museum also has two display cabinets with paper items of historical significance.
This is a copy of the page from the first phone book dated 1878. Note that no one had phone numbers yet so only names were listed.
This is an actual St. Louis telephone directory from 1880.
This display is about 1010 Pine Street, the original high-rise phone company building that at 28 stories was the tallest in Missouri when built in 1926. The display includes two Bell doorknobs and souvenir miniature sword, bookmark and horseshoe.
This display recognizes many of the different phone companies.
Having multiple companies could present its own set of challenges. This brush distributed for advertising reasons by this store owner included a phone number for each of the two phone companies to which he was attached.
No telephone museum is complete without a tribute to Alexander Graham Bell. This life-size sculpture was made by a local art teacher and was on display in 1010 Pine before being moved to the museum.
All of these items in this display case are in recognition of Alexander G. Bell.
This is a replica of his first phone which had a liquid transmitter.
In the statue he holds a model of his second phone.
And finally on display is a replica of his first commercial phone
This rotary dial phone made in the 1970s in the shape of an airplane bears his name.
There is a small room dedicated to the Yellow Pages. The room is full of memorabilia.
On the wall of the room, old directory covers are on display.
One display case in the museum is dedicated to phone company memorabilia. Some of the items on display were given to employees for service years.
A display honoring local Bell employees who served in the armed forces was moved from 1010 Pine to the museum.
And of course no museum is complete without a gift shop. I am sorry I neglected to take a picture of the chocolate telephones made by Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate!
Lunch after our museum tour was at Cafe Telegraph known for their smoked barbecue.
These naked smoked par fried wings are awesome!
A very thick Reuben sandwich with sweet potato fries.
A very large House Salad.
COMMENTS: We really enjoyed this museum. Our morning was definitely a walk down memory lane. It is always fun to see items from various stages of your lifetime.
What made this visit so special was that we had an exceptionally excellent tour. Although the website states you need to have ten for a tour and need to schedule a tour two weeks in advance we were able to walk in and get a tour for the 5 of us plus two others visiting the museum. The tour was so informative and fun. We learned a lot that we would have missed just walking through. Our guide Carol, a volunteer Pioneer, was awesome! Since the museum is run by volunteers they apparently do not have guides available all of the time. My recommendation would be that even if your group is under ten people, call ahead and see if there is someone available to walk you through. The tour took a little over an hour to complete.
The museum does accommodate large group tours so it probably would not hurt to call ahead and confirm that the museum will not have a large group when you plan to visit. We went on a Thursday morning and there were only two other small parties there.
Currently the upstairs is not open to visitors but plans are to consider adding an elevator allowing the museum to add displays upstairs.
The development of this museum is obviously an act of love. The Pioneers did a wonderful job through and through. Who knew telephones could be so interesting and so much fun!!
The parking was a little confusing. One can parallel park behind the building or drive a ways north to a parking lot.
Please note on the museum's website that the museum is only open five days a week (Wed.-Sun.), and five hours a day (9-2).
Cafe Telegraph is the only locally-owned restaurant close to Jefferson Barracks thus we had eaten there before when visiting the Civil War Museum. We knew the restaurant served awesome wings and decided to go back there for lunch. We were not disappointed. Huge portions meant take- home for another meal!
