Palisadian., 1925-04-17
Very Interesting
History of Local
Phone Service

From one telephone, served from
Jersey City and used to make and
receive less than half dozen calls
day, to system of 2,7OO telephones
with an average of 1880 calls day,
is a fine record of development in
forty-two years, and reflects the rapid
growth of a prosperous community.
This, in brief, is the story of the
progress of the telephone in Cliffside,
the central office of which also serves
Morsemere, with an additional total
of go telephones.
The first telephone was installed
in this area by the General Chemical
Company at Shadyside before 1888,
in Jersey City. At that time, the
| telephone was more or less of a
curiosity, and it was many years be-
fore it began to be a vital part of the
business and social life of Cliffside.
The General Chemical Company
Estill retains it's original number Cliff
side s." Among the other early tele-
phone users here were DR.. M. S.
Ayres, Walter Bender, Major McClave.
Pyles Pearline Plant and Patterson
& Eisele.
In 1906, more than twenty-three
years after the installation of the
General Chemical Company's tele-
phone, the first central Office was es-
tablished in the Cliffside area, the
location being in an apartment house
on Columbia avenue, Grantwood, with
a magnetic service switchboard.
During the early days of the tele-
phone in the Cliffside area, the calls
were made by giving the operator
the name of the party desired
Gradually, however, the practice of
calling by number was substituted
until it became part of the routine of
telephone operation.
The operating company was the
New York and New Jersey Telephone
Company, which was taken over in
1909 by the newly formed New York
Telephone Company. At the time of
the establishment of the first central
office there were but so telephones in
this area one operator only being re
ouired to attend to their needs.
The first operator was Miss Bessie
Beutell. She was followed by Miss
Katherine Won Holten who is now in
the telephone companys services at
the Montgomery central office, Jersey
City, where she is night chief opera
| tor. Edward Smith, now troubleman
at Passaic, N. j., was the first plant
man to work steadily in this area.
In 1910, four years after its estab
| lishment, the central Office was moved
tc it's present location at Anderson
avenue, Grantwood. The number OF
telephones served by this Office had
increased by this time to 500 and the
magnetic type switchboard had been
replaced by larger switchboard OF
the common battery type.
Growth of the telephone system
keeping pace with the development
of the community, has been steady
since 1910. In 1911 one hundred
more telephones were added to the
system served by the Cliffside cen
trail Office, and the period from 1910
to 1915 saw the number of telephones
in Cliffside actually double.
From the thousand mark reached
in 1915 there was steady increase
until 1920. At the beginning of that
year Cliffside central office served
| 1900 telephones, and in the last five
years that number has been more
than doubled, until at the present timl
there are 2,700 telephones taken care
of by this central office.
Forty-two trained workers are re,
CURED to take care of the telephone
needs of the Cliffside telephone users
and the amount of traffic shows con
tinued increase.
During the first two months of this
year, there was a net gain of seventy
telephones in Cliffside, and according
to C. A. MCGOWAN, Local Commercial
Manager of the New York Telephone