Two Phone Numbers Book Report

A member recently asked me to look up two phone numbers, one for the Gillette Skirt Factory and one for Noah H. Gillette. Into the collections I went searching for an old phone book. I was not certain how early I would be able to find, but was thrilled to get 1908. The book covers much of the Central New York Region with each town/city having their own section. In smaller locales you would have just a listing of names, but for more populated areas, you would have actual numbers. I found Cortland, I found G, and found Gillette, and there in black and white was “1 …. Gillette Skirt Co., The, Office……… 157 Homer.” The phone number was 1 for the office and 2 for the residence at 20 West Court Street. (Interesting note, when Rutherford B. Hayes had a telephone installed in the White House on May 10, 1877 – their number was also 1) This finding left me with two questions. One – who rounded out the top ten. Two – how did you get such a number? Luckily while the phonebook itself was fairly large encompassing much of this area, the actual part for Cortland only took up a few pages.

The top 10 numbers were: 0 – Cortland Democrat Office, F.C .Parson 1 – Gillette Skirt Company Office 2 – Noah H. Gillette Residence (20 West Court Street) 3 – Wallace Wall Paper Company 4 – Forging Company, Cortland Office 5 – Wickwire Roller …show more content…
The need for telephone operators to connect us directly to the other person would disappear with direct dialing. Area codes were brought about in the 1950s, bringing us to the 10 digit phone numbers we are familiar with today. With the advent of cell phones has come greater number portability. You can live, miles or states away from an area code and still have that as your phone number if you choose not to change it. While today just dialing 1 will not get you anywhere it is fascinating to see how phone numbers have changed and