Profile America: First Telephone Directory

First TelephoneFIRST TELEPHONE DIRECTORY

 

In the early days of the telephone, knowing who had one and what the number was quickly became a problem. The first telephone directory in the U.S. was published on this date in 1878 in New Haven, Connecticut. It wasn’t a big list — there were only 50 subscribers. A little later, a directory also came out in San Francisco, with about 170 names. Today, of America’s roughly 117 million housing units occupied by owners or renters, over 114 million, or about 98 percent, have cellular or landline telephone service. Eleven firms issue directories for the nation’s millions of listed personal and business phone numbers. Manufacturing telephones and associated equipment is a $7.4 billion a year domestic business.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

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