Today, at 743 Washington St, is a small building squashed between two regular buildings, with an elaborate multi-level pagoda roof, and you'd walk by without another glance, as it is just a bank (now East West Bank, formerly Bank of Canton). But you are walking by a piece of history, for that was the location of the Chinatown Telephone exchange.
The telephone service in Chinatown actually started in 1894, with 3 male operators and 37 phone subscribers. Though some sources claimed it started in 1887 or 1901. However, the 1894 date seems to be better supported. The switchboard used to occupy a different building on the corner of Grant and Washington but moved in 1896 into the 743 Washington building, which was previously occupied by the first English Newspaper in California, the California Star, founded by Sam Brannan. (Those of you who kept up with history may have heard the joke that Sam Brannan was best known for buying up all the shovels and pans in the city before announcing that gold was discovered in Sonora California. The joke was truer than you realize. )
The building burned down in 1906 Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, and the current version, with the 3-tier pagoda, was built in 1909. By this time, it services 800 numbers in Chinatown, and by this time, the staff became all-female.
According to Geri Koeppel, who wrote for Hoodline, operators have to recall from memory thousands of numbers (at its height, the exchange handled over 3000 numbers) by the number, names, addresses, and workplaces for all the subscribers, and often speak 2-3 different dialects in addition to standard Cantonese, Mandarin, and English.
According to at least one historian, there was a Greyhound bus stop across the street, and people would get off the bus and go peek in the windows looking at the professional Chinese women working as telephone operators wearing embroidered silk gowns. It was really exotic at the time.
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| Chinatown Telephone Exchange exterior circa 1940s via foundsf.org |
By the 1930s and 1940s, the phone numbers follow the 2-letters and 5-digits format, or "2L-5N", the two letters tell you which telephone exchange you will be connected to, then it's up to that exchange's operator to connect you to the right number. The two letters for the Chinatown exchange are CH. So for letterheads of the time, many of them will show the phone number as "CHina XXXX" where the XXXX is the number, and CH (capitalized) is the exchange.
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| Golden Star Radio Company newspaper ad, CH 2322 (phone #) circa early 1900s courtesy Discog |
The exchange finally was replaced by rotary phones and closed in 1949, and apparently, it sat vacant for about a decade before someone would agree to San Francisco city government's terms to keep it exactly as is.
Bonus Trivia: There's a movie featuring the Chinatown Telephone Exchange called "Chinatown at Midnight".
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