STUART — The telephone, patented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876, would eventually enable people to communicate with others in all parts of the world, but at first, the few subscribers, mostly the wealthy and businesses, were not sure what to say into the new voice connector.
Simply say hello
It had been an early practice for a caller to ring a bell, pause and then say “Are you there?” or “Are you ready to talk?” Thomas A. Edison suggested that one should simply say, “Hello” when the phone rang.
As more phone connections were created during the 1880s and 1890s, a new occupation was created. Calls needed to be connected manually from one subscriber to another.
A new career option
It became an almost exclusive new career for young, unmarried girls as telephone operators during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Females were considered to be patient and naturally more polite than males with a pleasant and appealing voice. Operators would be required to dress as ladies at all times with heels, hose, high necklines, low hemlines, little makeup and no exotic hairdos.
Hello, 'Hello Girls'
Thousands of women who were employed in this service were sometimes called "Hello Girls" although they never really said "Hello" when answering at the switchboard, but instead were instructed to say, “Number Please.”
Salaries for operators in 1900 averaged about $7 for a work week of 11 hours a day for six days; by the 1920s, the ladies worked six days a week, nine hours a day and every other Sunday for $7.50 a day. The job required concentration, some dexterity and it was no doubt uncomfortable sitting on a hard stool all day, having to even ask permission for restroom privileges.
Jacksonville was one of the first cities in Florida with phone service and a mere 32 subscribers in 1880. Soon after Stuart was incorporated in May 1914, the president of the West Palm Beach Telephone Co. announced the impending arrival of telephone service to the town, if at least 40 subscribers would sign up. The phone lines would run from Jupiter and Hobe Sound north to Stuart and cost the company approximately $1,000. The money for the undertaking was raised very quickly by selling company bonds for $100 each to Stuart businesses and residents.
Stuart gets phones
The first telephone office with a full switchboard was built on Avenue C (Akron Avenue). The route of the phone lines, on sturdy poles, was along Dixie Highway into Stuart and was completed by April 1915. The Stuart Drug Co. had the first pay phone in town where it cost 41 cents to talk for 3 minutes to someone in West Palm Beach. Residential phones cost $2 per month and several individuals not only had a phone at home, but another at a business location.
The manager and one of the first 'Hello Girls' for Stuart was Ethel Madsen. Her parents, John E. and Hattie Madsen, had lived in Eden, then in the Stuart area for years. (As students, Ethel and Merle Smith, being the only two graduates of the Stuart High School class of 1916, were the first to receive diplomas.)
In spite of the 40 pledges for phone subscribers, in the early months of operation, only 31 had actually been paid and installed. There were assorted phone companies for different locations (Jensen, Fort Pierce, Vero Beach) and the expansion of the phone system was slow. A few of the smaller companies had a simple switchboard in an operator’s home.
Manager get married
Stuart was fortunate in having a separate phone office from the beginning. Ethel's employment as a 'Hello Girl' ended in 1919 when she wed Robert Walter Edwards who worked in Stuart for the telephone company. As a married woman, she had to leave her position as an operator.
Telephone numbers for Stuart subscribers were at one time simple, consisting of only a few digits: Geiger Drug Company's number was 37, Stuart Lumber, 22 and St. Lucie Hotel, 32. It really wasn't even necessary to know the number; the caller just asked for the business or person and the 'Hello Girl,' who knew practically everyone, connected the parties. In fact, in some instances, the town being so small, she often knew, if the person wasn't home, where he / she was or could be reached and could even make that connection!
Southern Bell comes in
A major change, however, came in 1924 when the Atlanta-based Southern Bell Telephone Co. purchased the small local phone companies and introduced the newest innovations. Now instead of cranking the phone to get the 'Hello Girl' an individual just picked up the receiver and was automatically connected with the operator.
About that time, Stuart's telephone company relocated in the Woodmen of the World Hall on Third Street, occupying the entire first floor with emergency batteries and switching mechanisms for operation of the system. Even during storms or hurricanes, operators were on duty to handle calls as the old frame building no doubt shook from the winds.
But there was no warning for a devastating incident that occurred on April 27, 1955, at about 2:25 a.m. Dorothy Anderson was on duty in the early morning hours as three sticks of dynamite were tossed under the phone exchange building and exploded with tremendous force.
Moments before, Dorothy had walked to the front of the building to get a sweater and fortunately was not in the area of direct impact, which probably saved her life. The explosion blew out a six-foot gaping hole in the buckled flooring, damaged the switchboard, light fixtures, shattered glass and mutilated furniture; a kerosene stove was blasted into the ceiling.
It was determined that the attack was due to the ongoing telephone employee labor union strike which had begun in February 1955.
There had been other incidents in Florida at the time relating to the strike, but the Stuart bombing was the first to truly endanger life. Most of the Stuart employees had not gone on strike, including Dorothy, who had worked for the phone company 12 years and all were ready to return to work as soon as the repairs were completed.
Three years later, construction began on a new facility for the telephone company, directly across from Woodmen Hall. The concrete Southern Bell Exchange building would cost approximately $280,000, plus $606,000 for new equipment and $320,000 for lines and cables leading to the exchange. Growth in businesses and individuals needing phone service, from about 700 in 1947 to 3,300 in '58, necessitated the larger facility.
On March 1, 1959, the dial tone system (Number Five Cross-Bar) was initiated which also permitted direct distance dialing. A caller could 'dial' whomever, at any time, directly and even make long distance calls, without using an operator. With about 4,000 phones in Stuart in 1959, local customers rotary dialed AT(lantic) 7 and four other numbers to connect to another local phone; Stuart was one of just a few cities in Florida to have this new service.
Modern technology caused the phasing out of the manual switchboard and the once familiar friendly voice of the 'Hello Girls' politely requesting, “Number Please.”
By 1970, the area had 10,000 phone numbers ranging from 287-0000 to 287-9999, with the '283' exchange soon being needed to provide additional numbers. In 2010, there were 61 different exchanges covering all areas of Martin County. Although introduced to the public in the early 1960s, the touch tone phone wasn't generally accepted until the late '70s, a replacement for the rotary.
Phones are now wireless mini-computers, with cameras, GPS, texting and Internet capabilities. Some people even use them to actually talk to others. What would Ethel have thought of all these innovations?
Alice L. Luckhardt is a freelance historical researcher and writer, member of the Board of Directors for the Stuart Heritage Museum and researcher for the Elliott and House of Refuge. Greg Luckhardt, a native of Stuart and 1967 MCHS grad, is a former science teacher, retired businessman and member of Stuart Heritage Museum.
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