Odessa Telephone Exchange

Began operation about 1897, with Edna Fielding as "central" (operator). After Miss Fielding's death in 1902, the Rev. G. B. Ely, a baptist minister, purchased the exchange. Pioneer rancher A. Quincy Cooper bought the system in 1911, and extended service to rural areas, utilizing barbed wire fences as telephone lines. While checking his repairs on a barbed wire line on Jan. 25, 1915, Cooper interrupted the first transcontinental telephone call between Alexander Graham Bell in New York and his assistant in San Francisco. In 1928, the exchange became part of the southwestern bell telephone company.

Odessa Telephone Exchange is a historical marker in Odessa, Ector County, dedicated in 1974. It is one of 37 historical markers documented in Ector County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 39 historic sites cataloged across the county.

The site sits at 31.8481, -102.3680 near Odessa. The nearest cataloged historic site is Odessa Land & Townsite Company (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Livery Stable & Wagon Yard, Ector County Courthouse, and Ector County Land Rush.

This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5135003669. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.