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