Research by Jack O’Donnell

We hope this blog post rings a bell in your telephoning memory.

The early days: 1 to 2 digits

Sunset Telephone & Telegraph Company started the first telephone service in Everett in mid-November, 1892. Managed by A.J. Clark , the office and switchboard were in Pioneer Drug Store (note: we don’t know where this business was located yet).

The phone numbers were very simple: from 3 (Hotel Summit, H. Lindsey) to 68 (Everett News Company, H.S. Baker). Not all numbers are used and some share numbers.

In 1908, two-digit numbers were still used, such as the Everett Box Company who had two phones. One was at the factory in Lowell, the other at their warehouse on 32nd and Walnut. Both had the phone number 42.

Source: Everett Herald 11-17-1892, with phone numbers from Polk 1893.

Adding a prefix

By 1939, this ad for H.O. Seiffert on Hewitt & Virginia shows a phone number Main 1.

Later on you see numbers like Main 300 for Pacific Grocery.

Still later it’s another digit like Blue 1717 for the Knothole restaurant, or Black 1242 for Gardner’s Grocery in 1950.

About 1949, the phone numbers changed from the colors to BAview, etc. That is when the dial systems came in so it wasn’t necessary to wait for an operator to say, “Number please.”

Neighborhood Prefixes and 6 to 7 digits

For the first decades of Everett phone service, you went through an operator to connect your call. On Sept. 15, 1957, Everett went to direct dialing to places as far away Snohomish, Skagit, Island and King counties.

Everett Fuel and Lumber’s was BAview 4544 in early 1958. There were still only 6 digits.

Jack O'Donnell collection — Jack O’Donnell collection

On May 18, 1958, Everett went from six to seven digit in preparation for nation-wide direct distance dialing. BAview became ALpine 2, CEdar became ALpine 9, HIghland 5XXX became ELliot 5, all other HIghland became ELliot 3, PResident became FArview 6, and TUxedo became EDgewood 4.

The modern era

March 30, 1962 saw the dedication of new West Coast Telphone Co. building at 1800 41st. People still dialed their phones. Push button phones showed up later.

Later, Everett became part of the new 425 area code. Still later with the proliferation of pagers, modems, and mobile phones, ten-digit dialing replaced seven digit dialing.

Comments

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