Norwood Switches to Dial Telephone Service-This Day in Norwood History-June 16, 1961

Norwood and Canton Last Towns In Area To ‘Cut Over’

In mid‑June 1961, Norwood and Canton prepared to complete one of the most significant technological transitions in local communications history: the long‑anticipated “cut over” from manual telephone operation to full dial service. At 12:01 a.m. on June 18, both towns would join the rest of Metropolitan Boston in adopting the most modern automatic telephone system then available.

The new dial office on Vernon Street in Norwood represented a major investment in infrastructure. Constructed and equipped at a cost exceeding $1,850,000, the facility was designed to process nearly 14,000 calls per hour during peak periods. A companion office in Canton, built at a cost of $1,250,000, completed the regional upgrade. Although Norwood and Canton were the last towns in the metropolitan area to convert, the delay ensured they received the newest and most advanced equipment.

According to Area Manager Joseph A. Crowley of the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company, the company had “spared no effort or expense” in providing the highest level of service modern technology could offer. Once the Vernon Street office went live, all calls originating in Norwood would be handled and recorded automatically. Local users would still be able to reach an operator by dialing “0”, preserving a familiar point of contact during the transition.

Immediately after the cutover, any incorrectly dialed calls from Norwood or Canton would be routed to an operator stationed in the old telephone buildings. That operator would provide callers with the correct area code and number changes. This temporary assistance would later shift to the Bowdoin Square office in Boston once dialing errors declined. At that point, Boston operators would supply all necessary Norwood and Canton information.

To help customers adjust, New England Telephone mailed a dial‑instruction folder and a new South Suburban Telephone Directory to every subscriber. The directory contained all updated numbers required for the new system.

The Vernon Street dial office was built as a fully self‑contained unit. It included complete facilities for recording the source, time, and duration of all Norwood calls, with billing information forwarded to Boston. The Master Test Center could evaluate the efficiency of the entire dial operation, with tests selected manually and results produced almost immediately on punched cards. Dial Conversion Engineer James R. Kelly explained that the center would routinely check more than 6,000 incoming and 7,000 outgoing calls per hour during peak rush periods.

Operational staffing included Floor Switchman George A. Wood of Walpole, who oversaw the office, along with four additional floor switchmen. Automation was extensive: the system could instantly alert switchmen to trouble through an audible bell and flashing light that identified the affected circuit. When the office was unattended, alarms would register at the Dorchester office, prompting a service call to either Vernon Street in Norwood or Washington Street in Canton.

A complex fuse network protected the equipment from current overloads and potential lightning strikes. Below ground level, the power room housed transformers that converted alternating current supplied by the Town of Norwood into the direct current required for telephone operations. Backup batteries were ready to activate immediately in the event of a power failure. A large diesel engine could generate enough power to run the entire system during extended outages.

Project supervisor William B. Swanton described the installation of 56 originating registers in the new office. These registers generated the dial tone heard when a phone was taken off the receiver. With 13,077 telephones in Norwood, the number of registers was more than sufficient. Swanton explained that the circuit broke the moment dialing began; if dialing did not start promptly—such as when a phone was accidentally knocked off the hook—the line would automatically transfer and emit a “howling” sound to alert the user.

He noted that problems could arise during storms or emergencies when many people left phones off the receiver for extended periods without dialing, overloading the originating registers. This was why residents were urged to limit calls during emergencies.

Area Manager Crowley emphasized the scale of the conversion effort. More than 18,000 telephones in Norwood and Canton had to be adapted for dial service. The work, which began in October 1960, included constructing and equipping the dial office and installing and relocating trunk lines in both towns. When completed on June 18, the familiar NOrwood 7 and CAnton 6 exchanges would disappear.

New England Telephone and Telegraph was one of 17 companies comprising the Bell System, which serviced more than 35 million telephones nationwide. As part of this vast network, local residents dialing long‑distance might occasionally reach the wrong destination—such as a party in Kalamazoo—if they misdialed an area code. Telephone officials noted that such calls would take the same amount of time to complete as local calls under the new system.

If a wrong long‑distance number was reached, callers were instructed to note the location reached in error, hang up, dial “operator,” and report the time, origin, and destination of the call. The operator would then issue a “credit ticket,” and the customer’s bill would be adjusted accordingly.

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Norwood Messenger