Phone +1 206-767-3012 Function Museum | Founded 1985 | |
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Address 7000 E Marginal Way S, Seattle, WA 98108, USA Hours Closed today TuesdayClosedWednesdayClosedThursdayClosedFridayClosedSaturdayClosedSunday10AM–3PMMondayClosedSuggest an edit Similar Georgetown Steam Plant, Living Computers: Museum, Naval Undersea Museum, Northwest African American, Coast Guard Museum Profiles | ||
Museum of communications komo 4 news story september 18th 1989
The Herbert H. Warrick Jr. Museum of Communications, originally the Vintage Telephone Equipment Museum, is located in Centurylink's Duwamish Central Office at East Marginal Way S. and Corson Avenue S. in Georgetown, Seattle, Washington. It "reveals the history of the telephone and the equipment that makes it all work." The museum was originally sponsored by the Washington Telecom Pioneers, and is now a part of the Telecommunications History Group, based in Denver, CO. It features vintage equipment from AT&T, Western Electric, Pacific Northwest Bell, USWest, and other organizations.
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History
The museum was founded as a joint effort by Pioneers, a Volunteer Network, a non-profit public service organization, and Don Ostrand and Herb Warrick, both employees of Pacific Northwest Bell. Originally envisioned to be one of three telephone museums in the Pacific Northwest, this was the only one that materialized. Work started in 1985, and the museum opened to the public in Fall of 1989. Frames of electromechanical switching equipment were brought in from existing central offices, and lifted to the third floor by cranes. From there, volunteers rewired the equipment to make it functional once again.
In 2016 the museum was featured on a popular YouTube channel run by Tom Scott, as part of the "Things You Might Not Know" series.
Collection
The museum has the following notable items in its collection:
Most of the artifacts in the museum's collection are functional, and are maintained regularly by volunteers. The electro-mechanical switching systems, particularly the No. 1 and Panel offices, are the only remaining switches of their type in the world that are still functioning. The No.5 crossbar office is one of two that operate in a museum setting in the U.S. (the other is at The Telephone Museum in Ellsworth, Maine). Although they are no longer connected to the PSTN, visitors can make calls between the switches in the museum.