We were recently asked when the phone company in Elkton stopped using telephone operators. Here’s our response.
Once, most Cecil County towns had switchboard operators. But as the modern age of telephony arrived, consolidation occurred, and gradually, switchboards in smaller towns went dark as the larger central office in Elkton handled connections.
As the 1950s moved along, sufficient centralization occurred that the Chesapeake and Potomac Phone Company only maintained a switchboard in Elkton. Rising Sun had an independent phone company.
Before direct dialing arrived in Elkton in 1959, there were 30 operators. But after that happened the company reduced the workforce to 14, the remaining staff handling calls that required operator assistance.
As direct dialing came in, the need for operators in Elkton was greatly diminished. Finally, in January 1972, the Chesapeake and Potomac Phone Company announced that calls requiring assistance would be routed through Havre de Grace, and on a Sunday that month the ladies worked their last shift. That day, the switchboard employees on duty were Eunice Kilby, Betty Husfelt, Elaine West, and Bernice Eastridge. Ten operators had remained at Elkton until that point. Mrs. Husfelt remarked that since 1959 telephone operators had worked at the Railroad Avenue location, and when the building opened, there had been 30 full-time employees handling calls.
For more on telephone operators, see –
Era Ends in 1963 as Rising Sun Unplugs Telephone Switchboard.
The Telephone Switchboard at Elkton, a Facebook album with additional photos