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 MISSOURI TELEPHONE CENTRAL OFFICE'S

 

Central offices of Missouri.  More to come......

PAGE 3

PATTON

 

 Patton houses a 5ESS Remote Switching Module that serves this rural community northwest of its host, Cape Girardeau.  Also still has old Southwestern Bell Rural office signage.

PAYNESVILLE

 

 Houses a Nortel remote line concentrator hosted by the DMS100 in Hannibal, Mo.  This is a tiny office with no plumbing so SBC has provided a "Johnny on the spot" located at the rear of the building.  This office is in a remote location so SBC has placed a potable engine alternator here for emergency AC power.  The cinder block construction is very robust, the building can handle everything from tornadoes to drunken drivers with impunity.  As is the normal case today there is very little signage on the building.

Old Exchanges: TIlden

PERRYVILLE

 

 It is also a No. 5ESS Remote Switching Module hosted by the Cape Girardeau, MO No. 5 ESS switch.

PEVELY

 

 Houses a Nortel remote switch hosted by the Festus DMS100.  The building is only about 9 years old.  This rural town was home to the Pevely dairy farms until about 15 years ago and few houses could be found out here.  Residential growth south of St. Louis has exploded and it required the new Central Office.

POCAHONTAS

 

 No 5 ESS Remote Switching Module hosted by the No. 5 ESS in Cape Girardeau, MO.

POND

 

 Home to an Lucent 5ESS Remote Switch Module hosted by the Chesterfield NO. 5ESS.  This office is extremely difficult to find.  The rear of the office faces the road on which it is located.

POPLAR BLUFF

 

 Houses a Lucent No. 5 ESS switch.  The original building is on the left side of the picture and it fronted on that street.  The front of the building now is the business office seen here which was added in the mid- 1950s.

Old Exchange: SUNset

PORTAGEVILLE

 

 Houses a Nortel remote switch hosted by the Sikeston DMS100.  It uses the New Madrid style of earthquake bracing.

Old Exchanges: DRake

PUXICO

 

 Houses a Lucent Remote Switch Module hosted by the Poplar Bluff 5ESS.

PUXICO "WEST"

 

 The No. 5 ESS RSM is hosted by the Poplar Bluff Lucent 5ESS switch.  Southwestern Bell applied external earthquake bracing to the office as it did to New Madrid.  It sits right on the edge of the Duck Creek Wildlife Area.

QULIN

 

 The office is at the very edge of the new Madrid fault zone so it got much less substantial earthquake bracing in the 1980s.  It houses a No. 5 ESS remote switch module from Lucent.

REPUBLIC

 

 It sits in a residential neighborhood in this Springfield suburb west of the city.

RISCO

 

 Houses an Erricson remote switch hosted by the Kennett AXE10 switch.  It is in New Madrid county, hence the external earthquake bracing of the structure.

ST. CHARLES

 

 Houses a Nortel DMS100 switch and serves the St. Charles county seat.  The office is the toll collection center for all traffic from Northeast Missouri.

ST. CLAIR

 

 There is a NO. 5ESS Remote Switch Module in this office which is hosted by the Valley Park, MO No. 5ESS switch.  The pay phone in front still works.  It is the standard red brick used in so many SBC Central Offices built in the 1950s and 1960s

ST. GENEVIEVE

 

 Houses a DMS remote switch hosted by the Festus DMS100.  It's quaint appearance fits in with the downtown area of the oldest city in Missouri, dating from 1790 or so.  (The town was relocated 3 miles due to its destruction by a flood in 1787 or 1788.)

ST. LOUIS 01 "CHESTNUT"

 

 This is the original St. Louis central office for Southwestern Bell.  It is home to a DMS100.  The original building was a four story structure fronting on Chestnut street.  As time progressed there was the elaborate skyscraper which grew up around it until it covered an entire city block.  This building once was the headquarters for all of SBC.  That changed when One Bell Center (now One SBC Center and no doubt soon to be One AT&T Center) was built.  The Central Office is on the second floor, the remainder of the building is office space.

Old Exchanges: CHestnut

ST. LOUIS 02 "EVERGREEN"

 

 This office houses a Lucent No.5 ESS switch. The area is economically distressed since the major employers here closed their plants 15 to 20 years ago.

Old Exchanges: EVergreen

ST LOUIS 03 "FLANDERS"

 

 It houses a No.5 ESS switch and uses this unusual stone to fit in perfectly with the residential neighborhood in which it is situated.  Like most of the older metropolitan St. Louis offices it is today still known by the exchange it housed, it's the Flanders office.

Old Exchanges: FLanders

ST. LOUIS 04 "FOREST"

 

 Home to a Lucent No.1A ESS switch.  Note the bricked up windows and fenced parking lot which indicate the risk of working in this neighborhood.  Fortunately this office may resume growth soon.  The city of St. Louis has given incentives which are starting to be seen in renewal projects near this office.

Old Exchanges: FOrest

ST. LOUIS 05 "JEFFERSON"

 

 This building is home to a No. 1A ESS switch and also houses a Tandem switch.  The 1970s addition of the 3rd through 5th floors is inconsistent architecturally with the original building.  That's odd, most Southwestern Bell additions blend in fairly nicely.  The Central office serves an area which is bouncing back from blight largely due to the presence of St. Louis University immediately to the South and east.  It also serves the refurbished Fox Theater and the Powell Symphony Hall.

Old Exchanges: JEfferson

ST. LOUIS 06 "MISSION"

 

 This office houses a Lucent No.5ESS switch.  The office is actually located in the suburb of Maplewood.  I have included the detail over the front door which shows the stone detail over the front door of the office.  The first picture clearly shows the 3rd floor addition to the building which was done to accommodate the No.1 ESS switch which has since been replaced by the 5ESS.  The original basic office clearly stands out in contrast to the additions done to this building over its life.

Old Exchanges: MIssion

ST. LOUIS 07 "PARKVIEW"

 

 The office hosts a Lucent No.5ESS and a Nortel DMS100.  It is located in University City which is the home of Washington university, the finest school in Missouri.  This office is only 11 blocks west of the Forest office but you find no bricked up windows here.  This location in "U City" is a popular entertainment area in the St. Louis metro area.  If you come to visit buy a burger  n' a beer at "Blueberry Hill"!

Old Exchanges: PArkview

ST LOUIS 08 "PROSPECT"

 

 Houses a Lucent No.1A ESS switch.  It serves the many mansions being rehabilitated in the Tower Grove Park area of St. Louis.  The third floor was added to accommodate the switch.

Old Exchanges: PRospect

ST LOUIS 09 "OLIVE" ( ORIGINAL OFFICE)

ST. LOUIS 09 "OLIVE" (LOCAL OFFICE)

ST. LOUIS 09 "OLIVE" (TOLL OFFICE)

 

 Known as the "Olive Toll" office.  The complex actually consists of 3 interconnected buildings, two of which front on Locust Street rather than Olive Street.  The newest, and largest, of the 3 buildings is Olive Toll which is topped by a radio tower and built of blond brick.  The original building is a tiny 3 story structure which sits on the corner of Locust and Beaumont.  The 3rd building lies directly north of the new building and east of the original structure.  In this view it appears to be 2 structures of red brick, one 6 stories tall and the other only 3 stories.  In fact the building was originally 3 stories high.  The easternmost part of the building was grown to 6 stories shortly after WW II.  There was once an Exchange LOcust here but it was absorbed by the Jefferson office with the advent of ESS.

The St. Louis "Olive" toll was considered a "Regional" office as part of the hiarchey switching structure.  It was one of only twelev of the regional offices nationwide.  It had direct connections to the sectional offices in Kansas City, Centralia and Memphis, along with numerous primary offices.

 

Original microwave routes from the Olive Toll complex connected to: Freeburg (SE), Newburn (N), Hillsboro (SW), Highland (E) and Gray Summit (W).

ST. LOUIS 11 "MELROSE"

 

 Home to a No 5 ESS digital switch and still called the Melrose Office.  It's just your average red brick Southwestern Bell Central Office.

ST. LOUIS 20 "FERGUSON"

 

 It's another metro office know by its old EXchange.  It houses a Lucent No. 5ESS switch.

Old Exchanges: FErguson

ST. LOUIS 21 "LADUE"

 

 This office in the exclusive St. Louis community of Ladue.  It houses a No. 5 ESS switch and an STP. I t was one of the first 1A ESS switches turned up for service in the late 1970s.

Old Exchanges: WYdown 1 and 3

ST LOUIS 22 "MEHLVILLE"

 

 Home to a No. 5 ESS switch.

ST. LOUIS 23 "OVERLAND"

 

 Home to one of the few remaining No1A ESS switches left in the state of Missouri. 

Old Exchanges: GArfield

ST. LOUIS 24 "RIVERVIEW"

 

 Home to an old No1A ESS switch.  I don't know why it's called Riverview because you are 2 miles from the Mississippi and can't see it from the central office.  There are 5 No. 1A ESS offices left in Missouri East and I have shown you 3 of them.  They are all located in areas where access line growth has been non-existent or negative.

ST LOUIS 25 "SAPPINGTON"

 

 This office has an unusual brick facade which features a series of rectangular shapes which stand out about an inch above the surface of the basic wall.

ST LOUIS 26 "WEBSTER GROVES"

 

 It was built to fit in with the old wealthy suburb town of Webster Groves, MO where it sits on the main street, Lockwood Ave.  It houses a Nortel DMS100 switch.  The two smaller oak trees in front of the office were only 10 feet tall when they were planted in about 1963 when the photographer was a boy there.

Old Exchanges: WOodlawn

ST LOUIS 27 "CREVE COEUR"

 

 This building also is home to an OSP planning and engineering group, the former in the basement, the latter on the second floor.

ST. LOUIS 40 "FLORISSANT"

 

 Houses a Lucent No1A ESS switch.
Florissant is French for "Valley of the Flowers" so you'd expect an exchange like TUlip to be there. 

Old Exchanges: TEmple

ST LOUIS 41 "KIRKWOOD"

 

 Home to a DMS 100 and STP.

Old Exchange: TAylor

ST. LOUIS 42 "BRIDGETON WEST"

Thanks to Mike of Las Vegas for his photo.

 

 Original Southwestern Bell CO built around the 1960s.  Note classic Bell logo survives!

Old Exchanges: AXminster 1, PErshing 8, 9 and SPring 0

ST. LOUIS 43 "BRIDGETON HAZELWOOD"

 

 One of the Missouri central offices which is home to a No.1A ESS switch.

ST. LOUIS 45 "SPANISH LAKE"

 

 Houses a No. 5 ESS switch.

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