Telephone building at Chestnut & Harvard Streets

[jim28518]

I moved from Worcester in 1970 and remember the "Telephone Building" at Chestnut & Harvard Streets.
Remember how loud the relays were, many employees must be deaf now.
What ever happened to the building with the advent of new switching methods?
Heck I remember our first phone, having to speak to an operator to get a long distance call placed and 1,2 and 3 party lines.
Late 1940's into early 1950's many of us didn't have a phone but went to a neighbor to get or make a call, how time change!

[pajkaki]

I remember when I was a little kid (probably in the late 40's) when Worcester went from five digit to seven digit phone numbers.  The two added were letters corresponding to numbers on the dialer.  In Worcester's case there were two prefixes, PLeasant and SWift.  My home number was PL6-7xxx.  Eventually the letters were dropped in favor of the corresponding numbers.  How time flies!!!

[jim28518]

Hay and Hi Pajkaki,
We had a phone prefix of "pleasant", we live on Sever street near the Worcester tennis club courts.
Their were several other phone prefix names for/in Worcester but I forgot them.
Believe our phone was "pleasant 7296", the prefix's lasted 5 years or so.

[Prosperos Daughter]

I worked there as a "cord board operator" in the early 70's. It was New England Telephone Co at that time. NE Tel Co covered ME, MA, VT, NH and RI. NE Tel Co merged with NY tel co becoming NYNEX. Acquired by Bell Atlantic that went on to become Verizon. Verizon still owns the tall building at 16 Chestnut St.