TELEPHONE CENTRAL OFFICES

SAN FRANCISCO REGION CENTRAL OFFICES

PACIFIC BELL-SBC PAGE

The San Francisco region was the first area in California and on the west coast to receive telephone service in the 1800s.  Telegraph was first introduced to the region in 1853 and later that same year a 200 mile line connected San Francisco with Marysville (central hub of the gold fields during the Gold Rush).  By 1860 telegraph had connected San Francisco with Yreka and Los Angeles.  Just a year after the invention of the telephone, a telephone circuit was established between two commercial interests in San Francisco. A year later in 1877, The Gold and Stock Telegraph Company opened the first exchange to serve 18 new telephone subscribers.  A few months later the National Bell Telephone Company of San Francisco started service with the "Bell" franchise and quickly gained 176 subscribers.  In 1880 the two competing telephone companies merged to form the Pacific Bell Telephone Company.  The Sunset Telephone-Telegraph Company was subsequently formed to provide long distance or "toll" service throughout the western states.  By 1885 San Francisco could talk directly to: Oroville, Visalia, Monterey and Fresno.  In 1889 the Pacific Bell Telephone Company became the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company.  The first long-distance line between San Francisco and Los Angeles was opened in 1894 and a line to Portland followed in 1898.

The great earthquake of 1906 damaged the telephone system and destroyed 5 out of the 7 central offices.  Of the 52,000 telephones in service only 10,000 remained operational.  It would take a year before the system was restored to pre-earthquake conditions. In 1954 Pacific Telephone and Telegraph became just Pacific Telephone and this then became Pacific Bell after the 1984 divestiture.  SBC purchased Pacific Bell and they now operate the 20 offices in the San Francisco region.

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