The Telephone Exchange Building is a historic building at 23 Union Street in downtown Norwich, Connecticut, behind Norwich Town Hall. Built in 1906-07, it was the first purpose-built telephone exchange building in the city, and is a little-altered example of period exchanges built by the

Southern New England Telephone Company The Southern New England Telephone Company (commonly referred to as SNETCo by its customers), doing business as Frontier Communications of Connecticut, is a local exchange carrier owned by Frontier Communications. History It started operations o ...

. The building now houses city offices. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 28, 1983.

Description and history

The former Telephone Exchange Building is located in central Norwich, on the east side of Union Street directly behind Norwich Town Hall. It is a 2-1/2 story Georgian Colonial Revival brick building, with a gabled roof that has stepped gable ends. It is set on a brick foundation that is partially exposed, with a brownstone water table. The main facade is five bays wide, with its entrance centered under an elliptically curved archway. The archway, like the flanking window openings, has a brownstone keystone. The interior has been substantially altered from its original use, having housed the police station and city offices. The

(SNETCO) was responsible from introducing telephone service into Connecticut beginning in the late 19th century. The company built this building to house the telephone exchange and associated infrastructure when it upgraded service to the Norwich area in 1906-07. The main switchboard was located on the east wall of the second floor, while the basement housed an array of batteries for use in the common battery method of powering telephone service. The ground floor housed a lounge area for company employees, and a terminal room in which wires entered the building for distribution either to the switchboard or batteries. The building is very similar in design to exchanges the company built in

Danbury Danbury is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located approximately northeast of New York City. Danbury's population as of 2022 was 87,642. It is the seventh largest city in Connecticut. Danbury is nicknamed the "Hat City ...

and Middletown at the same time, and was the first purpose-built exchange building in Norwich. It remained in service until 1948, when the company moved the exchange to larger quarters on Chestnut Street. The building was acquired by the city, which converted it into a police station, with jail cells in the basement and offices on the main and upper levels. The architect of the building was

Leoni W. Robinson Leoni W. Robinson (1851-1923) was a leading architect in New Haven, Connecticut. Life and career Leoni Warren Robinson was born September 26, 1851, in New Haven, Connecticut, to Warren Robinson, a builder, and Sarah Howard (Woodward) Robinson. ...

New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,023 ...

, and the contractor was C. Morgan Williams of Norwich.
Electrical World and Engineer
' 46, no. 22 (November 25, 1905): 923.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut Infrastructure completed in 1906 Colonial Revival architecture in Connecticut Buildings and structures in Norwich, Connecticut Telephone exchange buildings Telecommunications buildings on the National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in New London County, Connecticut Historic district contributing properties in Connecticut 1906 establishments in Connecticut

Description and history

See also

References