This picture shows the facade of the old First National Bank in Waverly, IL. This was GTE territory, pre-Verizon. Before 1954, GTE had a four-position switchboard located on the second floor of the bank. That summer, an 8-year old boy (me) watched in amazement as GTE installed an Automatic Electric switch and converted Waverly to dial. I remember my folks talking on (as I recall) a Kellogg wood-box wall mounted magneto phone. Our party line ring before the dial conversion was three shorts and a long. I still have a couple of the phones that I scarfed from the burn pile.

They dragged something like a 600 pair cable from the new central office about a block away, to the second floor, and half-tapped all the circuits. If you look VERY carefully at the north side of the building, on the second floor, just below the burglar alarm, you can see a cement patch in the side of the brick wall. That's where the cable went through the wall.

After the conversion, our phone number was 3331. Dad's store was 5252. You still had to use an operator to complete an out-of-town call.

The old bank is long gone. I have no clue if the second floor was ever used for anything else after GTE left, but now there is a florist on the first floor. The second floor windows are either boarded up or missing. To the left of the florist's you can see a slightly opened door leading to stairs that go to the second floor. The door has been open for who knows how many years, and I wouldn't climb those rotten stairs on a bet.

Thus passes another artifact into history.