F I R S TP R E V955NEXTLAST

Not Up To Code, Chinatown Alleyway
San Francisco published its first telephone directory in 1878, it contained only 173 business numbers. But residential phones quickly became popular and by 1895 there were so many numbers that phone number prefixes had to be introduced. In addition, there were a number of different local exchanges such as central, private, special, temporary, and public. In 1909, the Chinese Telephone Exchange was added.

On January 25, 1915, the first transcontinental call was made from a 68 year old Alexander Graham Bell in New York to his associate, Thomas Watson at the San Francisco World's Fair. Bell began the call with, "Hoy, hoy, Mr. Watson! Are you there?" By 1948, San Francisco had more telephones per capita than any city in the world, nearly 48 for every 100 residents. Today, the Bay Area has nine different area codes including 415, which services the counties of both San Francisco and Marin.

San Francisco Telephone Prefixes 1895-1966
[ MAP F-15 ]