Missouri Central Offices

It houses a Nortel RSC hosted by the Kirksville DMS100. Boonville is one of the many towns founded by Daniel Boon. He also founded Defiance, Missouri.

The detail over the door is typical of Central Offices built in the 1930s and 40s. Most people looking for the office drive past it many times because it looks so much like a school building.

Old Exchanges: TUlip

ADVANCE	Houses a No. 5 ESS Remote Switching Module hosted by the Cape Girardeau No. 5 ESS. Old Exchanges: RAymond
ANTONIA	It houses a remote switch hosted by the Fenton, MO No. 5ESS switch.
ARGYLE	Argyle is part of the Linn, MO Erricson AXE switch cluster. The only way you end up in this sleepy little farming town is that you intended to go there, it is the very definition of “out of the way” incarnate. It, like Meta and Linn is in the Westphalia LATA. It still has not gotten an AT&T logo on the building so I suspect it never will, not with a “Johnny on the spot” out in plain view. Old Exchanges: PArk
ARMSTRONG	Serves a small farm town in the middle farming area of the state. Remote switch hosted by Moberly
BEAUFORT	This is a small farming community west of Union, MO. When I see the name I mentally pronounce it “Bo Fort”, like the WWII British medium bomber. That is not how the residents pronounce it, they say it as “Buford”, as though someone had taken the phrase “Beautifully furred” and gutted it. It houses a remote switch homed on the 5ESS host in Union, MO. Old Exchanges: HUdson
BENTON	Home to another No.5ESS remote switch module hosted by Cape Girardeau. It has the typical rural signage that marks it as an SBC office. Old Exchanges: KIngsdale
BISMARK	Home to a Lucent No. 5ESS remote switching module, part of the Park Hills switch cluster. I don't know if this farming town was named for Otto Bismark but, if it was, the founders misspelled the name and it stuck.
BLOOMFIELD	Houses a Nortel Remote Switch hosted by the DMS100 in Sikeston, Missouri. Old Exchanges: LOcust
BLOOMSDALE	Houses a Nortel remote switch hosted by the Festus DMS100.
BOIS D ' ARC	It is located in the rural area west of Springfield, Missouri.
BONNE TERRE	It serves the old lead mining town from a No.5 ESS RSM which is hosted in Park Hills (most people still call Park Hills by its old name, Flat River, MO.).
BOONVILLE	It houses a Nortel RSC hosted by the Kirksville DMS100. Boonville is one of the many towns founded by Daniel Boon. He also founded Defiance, Missouri. The detail over the door is typical of Central Offices built in the 1930s and 40s. Most people looking for the office drive past it many times because it looks so much like a school building. Old Exchanges: TUlip
BOWLING GREEN	Home to a Nortel DMS Remote hosted by the Hannibal, MO DMS100. Old Exchanges: EAstgate
BROOKFIELD	Serves another small town in NW Missouri which is centered on a farming community. Old Exchanges: CLaremont.
CAMPBELL	This is another of the Erricson remotes which is hosted by the Kennett, MO AXE10. Note the external earthquake bracing first used in New Madrid, MO.
CAPE GIRARDEAU	Houses a No. 5 ESS and is the host for a cluster of RSMs in Southeast Missouri. It is one of the few Central Offices in Missouri which displays the new SBC logo. It is another office which once had a radio tower atop it. Old Exchanges: EDgewater
CARDWELL	Houses an AXE remote hosted by the Kennett AXE10 Erricson switch. This rural office is only separated from the residence in the picture by 4 feet.
CARUTHERSVILLE	This is another of the southeast Missouri Central Offices which sits on the alluvial soil of the Mississippi river on top of the New Madrid fault. Like New Madrid and Hayti the building itself could not be earthquake braced so SBC built an earthquake braced frame and attached the building to it. As in Hayti they covered the majority of the front of the office with sheet steel. It houses an Erricson AXE remote hosted by the Kennett switch. Caruthersville is also home to Casino Aztar. Old Exchange: EDison
CEDAR HILL	Home to a remote switch hosted by the Fenton, MO No. 5ESS. Identical in construction to Antonia.
CHAFFEE	Houses a 5ESS remote switch module hosted by the Cape Girardeau switch. Old Exchanges: TUlip
CHARLESTON	Home to a Nortel remote hosted by the Sikeston DMS100. It is another of the Mississippi river towns which required retrofitted earthquake bracing in the 1990s using the New Madrid model of building a resistant steel cage and connecting the building to that. Old Exchanges: MUrray
CHESTERFIELD	This Central Office was built in the mid 1980s. It was the first 5ESS office providing the ISDN feature in the St. Louis metropolitan area. When first built it was surrounded by pasture and was a single story building. By 1996 growth in the area had exploded. The office need to add a second floor. The city of Chesterfield at this point decided that the office was not aesthetic enough and required SBC to give it an appearance more consistent with the residential area which had sprung up around it. On the right there is an emergency generator hidden behind a brick enclosure which appears to be part of the building proper.
CHILLICOTHE	Serves a rural town in NW Missouri which serves a farming infrastructure with a good deal of small business.
CLARKSVILLE	This river town sits on the banks of the Mississippi. The original building was the small hut at the rear of this picture. The building addition is from the 1950s for the 355 Community Dial Office step by step switch. Today the office is home to a Nortel remote switch concentrator hosted by the DMS100 in Hannibal, Mo. Clarksville sits at the base of bluffs on the Mississippi river which offer a spectacular view of the river. The town has a chair ski lift which takes tourists to the top of the bluffs year round. The green paint is quite unusual for an SBC building and makes it easy to miss as you drive by it on the street. Old Exchanges: CIrcle
DESOTO	Desoto is a Nortel remote hosted by the Festus, Missouri DMS100.
DEXTER	Houses a Nortel remote switch hosted by the Sikeston, MO DMS100. It also sports the banner seen at the Sikeston office which proudly proclaims that SBC is building the Missouri information superhighway inside.
DOWNING	Home of a NORTEL Remote Switch hosted by the Kirksville DMS100. It serves a farming town 6 miles south of the border with Iowa. The garage is highly unusual, especially in a rural area. Our guess is that it was built to shelter a portable switch used during the removal of the old electromechanical switch to make room for the RSC. Old Exchange: FRanklin
EAST PRAIRIE	Houses a Nortel Remote Switch Concentrator hosted by the Sikeston DMS100. It was earthquake braced in the 1980s but it was such a substantial building that it only required a bit of diagonal steel reinforcement as seen on the front wall.
EDINA	Home to a NORTEL RSC hosted by the Kirksville DMS100. It is located in the residential portion of this small farm town.
ELDON	Houses a host No. 5ESS switch for the Lake of the Ozarks cluster. It is considered a plum assignment for Local Field Operations because of its proximity to the Lake of the Ozarks and all of the attendant recreational opportunities there. Old Exchange: EXpress 2
EUREKA	There is a No. 5ESS Remote Switching Module in this office hosted by the Chesterfield, MO No. 5ESS. This was a sleepy little country town as far west as you could go in St. Louis county in 1970. Then "6 Flags over Mid-America" was built here. It is still growing. Old Exchanges: JUstice
FARMINGTON	Home to a No. 5 ESS switch.
FENTON	Host CO for numerous remotes. Old Exchanges: DIamond 3 and DAvis 6
FESTUS	Festus is also home to an OSP engineering team and a host switch to numerous remote CO's.
FISK	Houses a Lucent RSM hosted by the Poplar Bluff No. 5ESS. Old Exchanges: WOodland