This was the telephone exchange of the C&P Telephone Company of Baltimore City in the 1940s and 1950s, having moved from the McCombs Building on North Union Avenue at Franklin Street. Older switchboard operators remember that the fire siren was operated from here at word of a fire. Mildred Harrison says that “the switchboard would light up like a Christmas tree because the volunteers had to call in to learn the location of the fire.”

Havre de Grace didn’t have direct dial phones until 1960 so the company used several switchboard operators. Melva Graham, Ramona Bolen, Ruth and Shirley Andrews, Betty Bines and Nancy Hawley worked here; however, Louise Jackson was the first African American hired by the phone company. But the most memorable call for Becky Adams, who was a long-distance operator, was a conference call between the Aberdeen Proving Ground and the White House during a horrific thunderstorm when the lines kept going out and they lost touch with APG for about 30 seconds. She spoke directly with President Eisenhower! When she apologized to the President he responded to her with, “No one can overcome Mother Nature.” She says she was very relieved when that call was over! C&P moved to new premises at 650 Fountain Street in 1960 when the direct dial phones began.

Following their move, and into the mid-1980s, this functioned as a Christian Science Society church—it had an altar, school rooms, and reading room. Frank Maslin, Ellsworth Shank, and others purchased the building in 1986 and with the help of family members converted the offices into a home. They sold it in 1990 to Herbert and Carolyn J. Smith. After the passing of Herbert in 2014, Carolyn Smith deeded the property jointly to their son Shawn D. Smith and herself for the remainder of her natural life. Her life ended in 2016 and the property is now owned by Shawn Smith.

County Records
Built 1930. 3,008 sq feet, 1.5 baths, 1 story no basement, brick, 3432 sq ft lot.