The Telephone Central Office Building Pictures website was created for one reason only - historical preservation.

The telephone central office is the location where local landline telephone switching takes place. Inside is a specialized electronic telephone "switch" where phone calls are transferred from one customer to another, or to another central office via a long distance circuit.

The central office is almost as old as the telephone itself. Often times these buildings were built many years ago with an architecture that has been long ago forgotten. Many times these buildings were very large to accommodate the analog switching equipment of the day - Step by Step, Crossbar, Panel or early electronic. These days almost all central offices have modernized their switching equipment to a fully electronic system that takes up only a tiny space where years ago large electro-mechanical systems took up floors of space.

As telephony has changed over time, many people are now abandoning the traditional landline telephone for cellular or various Voice over IP methods. The theory is that as traditional landline use goes down, these buildings of yesteryear may disappear.

The goal of this website is to preserve these buildings for future generations in the years ahead. About 50 years ago, a telephone preservationist called "Mark Bernay" started recording telephone sounds. He now has a website called Phone Trips. Also on that website are sounds from his friend "Evan Doorbell" from 45 years ago. All the switching equipment that made these sounds are long gone. With the help of these two folks and others like them, we are able to listen to these sounds today. This site has as similar goal - preserving what we have now for people to look at in the future.