Bell Telephone Company Building Heritage Property Plaque, 2008
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Resource ID
4911
Access
Open
Address
80 Birmingham Street
Credit Line
Heritage Toronto
Date of Creation
2008
Historical Themes
Program Category
Rights
Heritage Toronto
Time Period
Caption
Bell Telephone Company Building Heritage Property Plaque, 2008
Description
1926 Designed in Edwardian Classical style by Montreal architect W. J. Carmichael this building was constructed to accommodate the switching equipment switchboard operators and technicians needed for Bell Telephone's rapidly expanding service in this area. Prior to automated call routing operators would direct each telephone call to its requested number. The first local phone calls were routed from a drug store in New Toronto where a switchboard was in operation by 1914. By 1925 Bell Telephone employed 26 people in the area and one year later this new facility was completed on an increasingly industrial section of Birmingham Street. By 1929 fifty-two staff worked here and handled a daily average of 13 000 phone calls in an area including Humber Bay the Town of Mimico the Town of New Toronto and Long Branch. This Bell Telephone Company building was extended to the east in 1948 and continued to serve Bell until 1981.
Marker lat / long: 43.603726, -79.504241 (WGS84)