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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Do you know where this is?

The elaborate terra cotta frieze from the old Home Telephone and Telegraph building isn't readily seen from ground level. That's because the building at 165 S. Howard only shows a little of its former glory. If you look above the Roman brick installed in 1970, you'll see these bas relief sculptures installed when the building was constructed in 1907 for the Home Telephone and Telegraph Company. 

The home telephone, one of the 20th century's most valuable household tool, changed the way Americans worked, communicated and lived. But it was a tortuous route of hardship and failure for phones to get installed and wired up.  Telephone companies dueled for supremacy in Spokane before the the inevitable winnowing down to one company, followed by the Bell Telephone system pulling all the disparate players, entrepreneurs and technology together to create "Ma Bell".  

One of the most promising telephone ventures was Spokane's Home Telephone and Telegraph Co., started by a Montana businessman, Thaddeus S. Lane. His company was a technological leader of the era and he juggled telephone companies spread around Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Spokane, the booming-est berg in the first decade of the 20th century, was to be his proudest achievments. But faced with mounting debts and competitors hooked to the Bell system, HT&T didn't survive. 

If you're interested in the early telephone business, check out Tornado Creek Publications and the book "Thomas H. Melsom: Spokane's First Telephone Installer."

Read about the early telephone business in the Then and Now column in the Spokesman-Review Monday, 3/14. 



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