California Central Offices-619

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CALIFORNIA STATE TELEPHONE CENTRAL OFFICE'S

AREA CODE 619

Area code 619 was split from 714 in November 1984, and established to serve the metropolitan San Diego area including cities to the south and east down to the US-Mexico Border. The 619 area code was one of the first new area codes established since the previous split in 1973 of area code 804 (Virginia). Telephone service in San Diego was started by the San Diego Telephone Company in May 1882 with a manual office in downtown. The Sunset Telephone & Telegraph Company took over operation of the original San Diego Telephone Company and extended lines to serve other cities including Escondido, El Cajon, Alpine and Chula Vista. In November 1897, a toll line was established connect San Diego to Santa Ana, thereby allowing San Diego to connect into the rest of the California. In 1903, the Home Telephone Company took over operations of the Sunset company and was then taken over in 1906 by the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company, later to become Pacific Bell in 1984.

ALPINE	Type: Rural Original Pacific Telephone and Telegraph office serving Alpine and Harbison Canyon areas. Old Exchanges: HIckory 5
CAMPO	Type: Rural Campo is a remote switch hosted by the Lakeside office and serving the rural east county of San Diego. Old Exchanges: GRanite 8
Decorative wall with inlaid pictures showing local telephone history CHULA VISTA	Type: Urban This office once served as a customer service center where customers could pay bills, etc. It was closed in the early 1990s and now is just solely a switching center. Old Exchanges: HAncock (42), HAmilton, HAzelwood and GArfield.
CHULA VISTA "EAST"	Type: Suburban Chula Vista East was built in the early 1970s when a new community college and residential areas were being constructed to the east of the city. At the time Pacific Telephone was still under the "Bell" franchise and hence the really cool "Bell" logo formed into the concrete wall.
Old Coronado Office CORONADO	Type: Urban The Coronado office under went a major expansion in 2005 and the existing digital switch was replaced with a Nortel ABI remote switch hosted from San Diego "University". The new Coronado office looks like many of the hotels in the seaside resort community. Old Exchanges: HEmlock (43), HEnley and HEmpstead
DULZURA	Type: Rural Dulzura is a small remote switch hosted from the Lakeside office and serving the Dulzura and Engineer Springs area of east San Diego County. Old Exchanges: HObart (46)
EL CAJON	Type: Suburban Old Exchanges: HIckory 4 (444), and HIllsdale 4
IMPERIAL BEACH	Type: Urban Imperial Beach was built in the 1960s and was a remote hosted by Chula Vista, until the early 1980s when a stand-alone switch was installed. As a kid my phone number (619-575) was hosted from this office. Old Exchanges: Hancock 2 (42) and GArfield 4 (424)
JAMUL	Type: Rural Jamul is a remote switch but one with a nice design. It serves one prefix or exchange. The office is of concrete brick adorned with red tile along the crest which fits nicely in the community. Note the top picture was taken about the year 2000. Since then the office was expanded as can be seen in the lower picture. Jamul is hosted out of the Rancho San Diego office.
JACUMBA	Type: Rural Jucumba is a remote switch hosted from the Lakeside office and serving the extreme southeast corner of rural east San Diego County. Old Exchanges: POrter 6
LA MESA	Type: Urban Old Exchanges: HOmeland 6, HOpland 6 and HOward
LAKESIDE	Type: Suburban The Lakeside office currently is host to many of the remote switches in the southeastern San Diego county region. Old Exchanges: HIlldale 4, Hobart 4 (44) and HIckory 3 (443)
NATIONAL CITY	Type: Urban Original office constructed in the 1930s. Note concentric barbed wire around roofline. Old Exchanges: GRidley 4 and GRidley 7
OTAY MESA	Type: Suburban Otay Mesa is a relatively new office built in the late 1980s to relieve the San Ysidro office from the Industrial/Commercial growth of the Otay Mesa/Border region area.
PACIFIC BEACH "GARNET"	Type: Urban Built in the 1940s, Garnet serves the densely populated Mission Bay, Morena, Mount Soledad and Bay Park areas of San Diego. Office serves both the 619 and 858 area code . Old Exchange: BRoadway 3,4 and BRowning 6
PINE VALLEY	Type: Rural Pine Valley is a remote switch hosted from the Lakeside office. Old Exchanges: Greenwood 3
RANCHO SAN DIEGO	Type: Suburban The Rancho San Diego office wins the award for the office that looks most like a hotel (Although the new Coronado office is a strong runner up). A nice, hidden design behind a strip-mall with even complimentary landscaping. Serves as host switch to the Jamul office. Lucent 5ESS Host.
SAN DIEGO 01 "C STREET"	Type: Urban C Street is the oldest central office in San Diego having been constructed in the early 1900s for the Home Telephone Company of San Diego. The right side of the building is the original structure showing the older architecture common at the turn of the last century. To the right is the most recent addition (1976) for load growth and increased capacity. Office serves the downtown region of the City. Old Exchanges: BElmont 3, BElmont 9, BEmont 2, BElmont 4 (234)
SAN DIEGO 02 "UNIVERSITY"	The University office is the tandem office for the San Diego region and the AT&T Toll office. See San Diego Tandem for more information. Old Exchanges: CYpress 6, WOodcrest 5
SAN DIEGO 05 "SAIPAN"	Type: Suburban Built in the early 1970s to relieve the National City office and serves Paradise Hills, Lomita and Bonita.
Original 37th Street Office 1960s-1970s additon SAN DIEGO 06 "37th STREET"	Type: Urban The 37th Street office was the second office built in the San Diego region to serve the East San Diego callers. Top picture shows original building with nice stone arches and Spanish style 1920s architecture. Bottom picture shows modern addition in the 1970s to serve load growth. Office underwent a major expansion and redesign during the 2000s. Architecture blends into the redevelopment efforts in the community and hides the true purpose of the building well. The 1AESS analog switch was replaced with a DMS-100 digital in 2000. Old Exchanges: ATwater 1,2,3,4 and TAlbot 1,3
SAN DIEGO 11 "COLLEGE"	Type: Urban The "College" office was built in the early 1960s to relieve the 37th Street office and for load growth in the eastern San Diego/Lemon Grove areas. College also serves the San Diego State University region hence the office "name". Old Exchanges: JUniper 2 and CYpress 8
SAN DIEGO 12 "MARKET"	Type: Urban 1AESS analog switches were replaced with 5ESS in early 2000. Old Exchanges: COngress 4
SAN DIEGO 14 "TENNYSON"	Type: Urban The "Tennyson" office was built in the 1950s to relieve the C Street and Pacific Beach-Garnet offices and provide service to the Point Loma and Ocean Beach areas of the City. This office also hosts the Navy's service to San Clemente Island which is provided by the Point Loma Naval Base via microwave to the military island about 60 miles offshore. Old Exchanges: BAyview 3 (223), ACademy 2, ACademy 3
SAN YSIDRO	Type: Urban Built by Pacific Telephone & Telegraph in the 1950s to provide service to the border community and US Port of Entry. Old Exchanges: GArden 5 (425), GArden 8 (428)

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