According to the Boston Herald, Verizon has outraged preservationists by removing the mural paintings that were shown in the lobby at 185 Franklin St. in Boston. The paintings, which showed linemen, switchboard operators, horses, trucks, switches, and various examples of poles, wires, etc., were the centerpiece of the lobby at the former headquarters of New England Telephone and Telegraph, where I once worked.
The building, which is to be sold, is a classic example of "art deco" design, and it was updated to remove more recent changes and return it to the art deco motif during the 80's. It's unclear if Verizon will be donating the murals to a museum, reusing them in another building, or selling them: I've seen different opinions or whether the
"Boston Franklin" was a major toll cable interchange point during the electronmechanical era, and held a lot of the "L" carrier and microwave equipment for both N.E.T. and Long Lines. It also housed the WADS office which served TWX.
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Bill Horne (Remove QRM from address for direct replies)
(Sorry, I fat-fingered the first one. This is the full version.)
According to the Boston Herald, Verizon has outraged preservationists by removing the mural paintings that were shown in the lobby at 185 Franklin St. in Boston. The paintings, which showed linemen, switchboard operators, horses, trucks, switches, and various examples of poles, wires, etc., were the centerpiece of the lobby at the former headquarters of New England Telephone and Telegraph, where I once worked.
The building, which is to be sold, is a classic example of "art deco" design, and it was updated to remove more recent changes and return it to the art deco motif during the 80's. It's unclear if Verizon will be donating the murals to a museum, reusing them in another building, or selling them: I've seen different opinions or whether the removal was done to preserve the murals or not, but given the extensive (and expensive) work done to restore West Street in New York post 9/11, I think Verizon's motives are proper.
"Boston Franklin" was a major toll cable interchange point during the electronmechanical era, and held a lot of the "L" carrier and microwave equipment for both N.E.T. and Long Lines, in addition to a #4 crossbar tandem. It also housed the WADS office which served TWX. I worked on the Radio Board there in the early 80's, and I was on the team that maintained the ship-to-shore terminal, the paging equipment, the air-to-ground telephone terminal, and the microwave systems, as well as the broadcast tie lines that connected studios to transmitters for most AM and FM broadcast stations in the city.
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Bill Horne (Remove QRM from address for direct replies)
Perhaps I've been reading too much James Howard Kunstler, but I think there is something to be said about not only preserving these paintings but buildings from that era. Too often a building owner decides it's more cost effective to tear down an old building and build a new, bland, glass and steel monstrosity in its place. Older buildings will have more maintenance issues and it can be difficult to retrofit ADA mandated infrastructure. Even something as mundane as upgrading the electric load capacity of a building can prove difficult when the building wasn't built with high-power equipment in mind. I don't know if this has been resolved, but in 2001 when New York television stations had to relocate due to losing their perch in lower Manhattan, some went back to using the Empire State Building, but had to do so at reduced power because the infrastructure simply couldn't handle a full-power transmitter.
We recently dropped off a child at Baylor University which has a mix of old and new buildings. The old buildings are grand and unambiguous. They're obviously university buildings and the entrances are unmistakable. With the new buildings it's hard to tell if it's a university building or an insecticide factory. And finding the front door is a challenge because the building is an ugly, four-sided box that doesn't welcome people into it.
We can only hope that Verizon is preserving a piece of history.
A number of telephone buildings are no longer used due to the miniaturization of equipment and centralization of office functions. Some old switching buildings were quite handsome, some newer office buildings had noted architecture.
In Philadelphia, a key center at 1835 Arch Street was converted to luxury housing. (The Phila. Western Union building was likewise converted). The main Bell office building, One Parkway, was sold. (IMHO that building was ugly).
Many people have organized historic preservation groups to fight to preserve old buildings. The problem is that such buildings are private property and it's unfair to impose a preservation burden, as accurately described above, on a private individual or business.
Many people were outraged when the Pennsylvania Railroad tore down the headhouse to its New York Pennsylvania Station. But the Pennsy was losing big money running its trains for non-existant passengers and paying heavy taxes and no one offered any help to it. Critics also ignored that only the headhouse was gone, the heart and soul--the trains themselves--remained with a new station to serve them.
***** Moderator's Note *****
I visited Ireland in 1986, and England in 1987, and I remember being surprised at how little fuss there was about the use of "old" buildings vs. new. We often saw medieval-looking walls on one building cemented to new concrete foundations on the next, and both old churches and old homes in ruins.
I think we in the U.S. pay so much attention to our history because we have so little of it compared to other countries, and also because the dizzying pace of change in our society causes us to long for a "simpler" time, however recent it may have been.
On Friday evening, 02 October 2009, Bill Horne wrote in "Verizon strips murals from N.E.T. HQ at 185 Franklin St. in Boston"
This topic was also brought up on the Yahoo "Central Office" discussion group, and there were some who posted there who were opposed to Verizon for their removing the murals. But Verizon *SOLD* this building to Commonwealth Ventures and the new owner has no interest in keeping these murals. The article mentions that VZ is trying to find the murals a new home in the New England area. A museum in Rhode Island would like the murals, but some in Boston want the murals to remain in Boston where they have been for decades. I do NOT have any blame for VZ since they are trying to do what they can to preserve these murals, even though they have sold this historic building.
Personally, I would hope that these murals will remain in Boston at a location where the general public can view (AND PHOTOGRAPH) them!
Here is some information as to what is or has been located at 185 Franklin Street in Boston's financial district, at the (old) New England Tel & Tel building, in the way of switching...
There was one of the original six #4 Crossbar toll machines located there back in 1949, the #4s did NOT even come with provisions for a card-translator box. #4s had to be MODIFIED later for a card translator (the thirteen original #A4As, Anticipated 4-Advanced were built for provision of card translators but initially didn't have them at installation). The first six #4s were renamed #4Ms (for modified) when they were significantly modified with the addition of a card translator.
Nov.1949 BSTNMAFR02T, eventually a "class-2", 617-2, "Boston-2"
Later on, Apr.1970, "Boston-9" was added, another #4A Crossbar toll machine, BSTNMAFR09T, also a "Class-2" in the old toll hierarchy,
617-3, was added.
There were at least three XB-Tandems located at Boston "Franklin":
BSTNMAFR03T "Boston-Metro" in June 1949, a Class-4, 617-43 BSTNMAFR05T "Boston-CAMA" in April 1957, a Class-4, 617-5 BSTNMAFR17T "Boston-17" in October 1972, a Class-3, 617-17
It does NOT appear that there were any 4ESS switches ever located at Boston "Franklin", neither owned/mandated by AT&T-LL nor by NET&T, pre- or post-divestiture.
I really do NOT have any of the history of NET&T local central office switches at "Franklin". The mural is from the 1940s-era, and the building is "art-deco" also from the 1940s period.
Were some #1XB switches installed here? Ever any Panel?
Obviously there were some #5XB local central offices and later #1(A)ESS as well.
I do find it interesting that the TWX/WADS main office for Boston (and probably the main one for all of NET&T) is located there. It would be a #5XB. AT&T-LL and the BOCs (and independent telcos) may have sold (US) TWX to Western Union circa 1970, but it took about ten years before TWX in the US was completely removed from the switch telephone (DDD) network and instead re-formatted onto Western Union's own switched Telex network. (TWX in Canada, until it was discontinued some
15 years ago, had always been a service of the Canadian telephone companies). There was also a D-TWX (Dial TWX) Assistance Operator board in Boston and I would assume that it would have been at "Franklin".
In April 1972, the TSPS was installed at "Franklin", BSTNMAFR1EB. Since this was the main building for NET&T in eastern Massachusetts, I would expect that the toll/local dial-0 assistance boards would have been located here as well prior to TSPS.
NET&T/NYNEX/BA/Verizon and AT&T-LL have had more recent tandems (i.e., the Verizon/NET&T LATA tandems), 4ESS toll switches, and operator/card service switches (VZ/NET&T DMS-TOPS, AT&T-LL 5E-OSPS), installed in Cambridge MA, Framingham MA, and Worcester MA, rather than in Boston MA (Franklin).
(AT&T has since discontinued their OSPS in Framingham MA circa 2003, and rehomed New England to the 914-0T OSPS at White Plains NY for AT&T-LL Operator and card services).
As late as 2005, there was a VZ/NET&T #5ESS, BSTNMAFRDS0, but there doesn't seem to be that #5ESS as of 2009.
Back in 2005, and still today (but I don't know when it was installed), is another digital switch (owned by VZ/NET&T), but I don't have details as to whether it is a WECO/Lucent 5ESS, Nortel DMS-100, or some other manufacturer or model, BSTNMAFRDS2. The documentation I looked at simply indicated "-DS2" as being a "DS" (Digital Switch) in the equipment field instead of "5ESS", but someone did inform me that the "-DS2" entity is also a "5ESS" even though "DS" (generic Digital Switch) is in the equipment field. This BSTNMAFRDS2 5ESS switch SEEMS to be the only remaining public telco switch at 185 Franklin at this time, and Verizon is still planning to lease part of the building from the new owner, as a major tenant.
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