1914
Phone Book Background Information
This
10 page
Lake Washington
Telephone directory is not dated except for a hand written 1914 date.
David Burr purchased the phone company in 1914 and this original
directory is owned by Martha Burr Millar, daughter of David Burr.
There are 223 customers listed and include
Kirkland
, Juanita, Houghton,
Redmond
,
Happy
Valley
, Yarrow, Cedermere,
Medina
, and Northup. There were
fewer than 223 phones because several customers are listed twice, once as
their business name and again as the owner.
Harry Langdon and Juanita Store are both Black 421.
Mrs.
Millar generously loaned
Kirkland
Heritage Society this old directory to be scanned and reproduced.
As a young woman, Mrs. Millar worked for her father as a bill clerk
and operator and was able to
give details on how the phones worked in the early years.
A
MAIN number means that only one customer is on that line.
The
Anderson
Ship Yard was Main 7, Brooks Grocery was
Main
6. All of
Happy
Valley
was Farm 4 and all those customers shared that one line.
The rest of the customers have Red or Black in front of their
numbers. The last number tells
how many rings a number had. Each phone number had both a red and a black
customer but they did not hear each others rings.
A 6 party line would have 3 red and 3 black numbers.
The customer with a red number would only hear the rings of the red
numbers. But they could listen
in on all the other 5 families conversations if they picked up the
receiver.
The
original directory has been returned to the Burr Millar family.
We thank Martha Burr Millar for sharing this phone directory and
her memories with us.
Compiled
by KHS members
Dale
and Loita Hawkinson
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