Historical Marker

Communications in Dallas

Rapid long distance communications came to Dallas in 1872 when the first telegraph lines arrived with the Houston & Central Texas Railroad. The first telephone line in Dallas ran from the city's water supply at Browder Springs to the firehouse at Harwood and Main in 1878. Twenty years later, Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Company erected a building on this site, in what was then the city of East Dallas, to house a toll relay office. All toll calls were switched through at this facility, linking the city with the wider world. By 1905 the "toll building" was taken out of service as a larger space became necessary and the telephone quickly became an integral part of communications in Dallas. (1998).