The Telephone Museum offers a great destination for family fun, school field trips or group sightseeing tours in North America. As one of the country’s premier hands-on telephone museums, this attraction chronicles the history and development of telecom from its initial invention up until modern cellular phones. Exhibits include working Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central office switches; antique telephones and switchboards; outdoor plant displays featuring poles cables splicing tools equipment as well as an expansive cataloged telecommunication reference library.
Jefferson Barracks Park Telephone Building
The Jefferson Barracks Park Telephone Museum is housed in a beautifully restored 1896 building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and features an extensive collection of telephones from late-1800s through 2000s as well as equipment and memorabilia related to them. There’s even an operational central office step switch and operator switchboard! There’s even some interactive hands-on exhibits designed to foster interest in engineering and history – as well as Boy Scouts who need some of their Inventing and Engineering merit badge requirements!
The Jefferson Barracks Museum and Park are both open daily to the public. Admission to both is free; donations are gratefully accepted. Guests can visit some of the soldiers who served here by visiting their graves – an excellent way to pay our respects and remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to America. Those wishing to do so should bring real or artificial flowers for placement on gravesites as tokens of remembrance.
108 Avenue East
This museum houses one of the world’s premier collections of telephones and related equipment. Its exhibits display how communication technology has progressed from Alexander Graham Bell’s attic workshop all the way to today’s sleek cell phones, as well as novelty phones from 1950s through 1980s.
The Jefferson Barracks Park Telephone Building boasts one of the world’s largest and most extensive collections of antique telephones. These include wooden wall phones, candlestick phones, classic rotary phones and glass insulators – with displays including America’s oldest telephone directory as well as replicas of President McKinley’s phone used to contact his assassins.
The Telephone Historical Centre boasts fully operational Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central office step switches, antique telephones and switchboards, outdoor plant displays featuring poles cables splicing equipment tools as well as an extensive cataloged telecommunications reference library. Experienced docents (current or former telecom employees who volunteer their time) provide guided tours throughout the facility.
Prince of Wales Armouries Heritage Centre
Building originally known as Edmonton Drill Hall when constructed in 1915, this structure was renovated for use as the City of Edmonton Archives in 1973 and underwent further major changes in 1993, such as adding an attached building-within-a-building for humidity and temperature control needed for maintaining archive records. Today it serves as home to both these institutions as well as traveling art exhibits at Prince of Wales Armouries Heritage Centre.
The building can host events ranging from weddings and corporate retreats, with its distinctive corner towers creating an opulence at any gathering. Just steps from Kingsway/Royal Alex LRT Station and Transit Centre, parking is free but limited; visitors should plan accordingly. Located within Prince of Wales Armouries Complex at 10440 108 Ave NW is The Museum and City of Edmonton Archives which provide visitors an ideal way to spend their afternoon or day.
Phone Museum
This museum preserves Edmonton Alberta’s telecommunication history through collecting, organizing, documenting and exhibiting. Established in 1987 in Old Strathcona neighbourhood before moving in 2004 to Prince of Wales Armouries Heritage Centre; the hands-on museum now ranks among North America’s premier hands-on museums with collections including working Panel and Crossbar electromechanical central office type switching systems as well as outdoor plant displays featuring poles cables splicing equipment tools antique telephones crank wall phones decorator phones and switchboards.
The Phone Museum serves as a tribute to the thousands of independent telephone companies that existed across America before the collapse of the Bell System. These “independents” sprung out of a desire to control local networks while making profits.
Volunteers of this nonprofit, many former or current employees of telephone companies, are dedicated to informing fellow citizens about the development of communication technology. They serve as living ambassadors of history they love while making learning fun!
