Bolton’s Telephone History

Notice how strange the numbers look. During this period of telephone technology, a person's number included the line number and the number of rings. The dash represented the word "ring." Therefore, W. C. White's telephone number was 35 ring 3. This indicated a party line, since the number of rings was assigned to only one party, but the line number was shared by up to 13 parties. W. C. White shared line 35 with seven other users. When his telephone rang, he listened for three rings. If his phone rang with one short and two long rings he knew the call was for William H. Loomis. No private lines existed in Bolton during 1913, but the town was served by 13 party lines.

Toll calls cost the same both day and night with five minutes conversation at a flat rate. Toll charges included 10 cents to Hartford, 15 cents to Simsbury, and 25 cents to all other exchanges in the state.

Chapter 4.

The former subscribers to the Bolton and Coventry Telephone Association and the new subscribers hooked up during 1912 received the same telephone instruments being used in Manchester. They were black upright telephones called "candlesticks." Children delighted in taking the receiver off the hook and holding it against the mouthpiece. This caused a very loud noise on the party line and created a feedback effect when another phone on the party line was being used.

A wire connected the candlestick phone to a ringer box on the wall, which included a pair of bells on the front and a ringer crank on the side. The large oak wall telephones normally seen in rural areas didn't play a major role in Bolton's telephone history.

When your phone rang, you listened for your designated number of rings, that is the number of long and short rings, to see if the call was for you. And when life was dull, you might just pick up your receiver and "listen in" on a call that you knew was for one of your neighbors!

As more and moer Bolton residents had telephones installed, they became better informed at a faster rate. As AT&T ads of this era proclaimed: "Mail is quick, telegraph is quicker; but long distance telephone is instantaneous." The telephone office in Manchester became a general center of information and soon Bolton residents owning telephones became accustomed to calling the familiar number 25, the information operator, for details about such matters as the locations of fires, the arrivals and departures of railroad trains, the results of sports events, and the latest weather reports. The telephone became what the computer is today: an information system.

Chapter 5.

As word spread that having a telephone meant it was possible to call nearly anyone in business, education, the military, government, the church, as well as friends and neighbors, Bolton residents were enthusiastic about having more poles and lines installed for additional service to the town. By 1920 our town had over 180 listings in the Manchester section of the Connecticut telephone directory. This number swelled to over 800 listings by 1930.

Meanwhile, in Manchester, a great surge in new subscribers prompted the construction of a new telephone exchange building on East Center Street. Its construction came at a time when dial service was being introduced to Connecticut's cities. The new building was designed to accommodate dial switching equipment, and by 1929 all telephone subscribers in the Manchester exchange, including Bolton, had dial service. Gone were the days when a twist of the crank produced a friendly operator saying, "Number please."

While town residents soon took local telephone service for granted, people along the East Coast had taken dependable long distance calling for granted since 1911, when the Boston-Washington conduit was completed through peaceful Bolton. This changed abruptly on June 10, 1941.

Very suddenly, the Bolton Lake Dam broke, sending millions of gallons of water crashing down Hop Brook toward Route 44 and the small bridge near St. George's Episcopal Church. The bridge, although badly damaged, held. But the Route 44 approaches to the bridge were completely wiped out, as were the telephone cables connecting Boston to New York. Normal long distance telephone service ceased between the two cities. Both the New York Times and the Boston Globe ran stories about the event, putting Bolton, Connecticut, on the map.

Chapter 6.

During the fall nights of 1991, Bolton residents and airplane pilots, too, noticed new lights over Bolton. Centered in the northern end of town and visibly red, the lights pinpointed a new era of telephone technology.

Actually, some residents were already using the new technology called "cellular" before the new lights shone over Bolton, but with limited results.

Just off Vernon Road and .8 miles from the birthplace of Bolton's first and only exchange in the 1799 House, stands a 280-foot steel tower erected by Mountain Top Enterprises. Completed during October 1991, the tower is a shared facility for two competing providers of cellular telephone service: Southern New England Telephone Cellular and Bell Atlantic Mobile.

The cellular site in Bolton is one of 80 in Connecticut. It serves not only the town of Bolton but Vernon as well, and in today's world, roamer traffic. Roamer traffic? Just a term for vehicles with cellular telephones passing through the local region, such as from New York to Boston on Interstate 84.

What does all this mean for Bolton? Basically, we are no longer tethered to land wires. We have the option of being able to fully communicate with anybody at any time in any place in today's mobile society. Many of us are deciding whether to become cellular subscribers and deal with additional intrusion into our lives--just as Bolton residents in 1912 were deciding whether to hook up and become tied to the Manchester exchange...and to the rest of the world by wire.