A current Brightspeed central office at 319 Madison Street in Jefferson City, Missouri, once housed the Capital City Telephone Company (which was purchased by United Telephone Company — later Sprint and Embarq — in 1968) exchange. Southwestern Bell Telephone Company was co-located at the property, which eventually had microwave paths to Eldon and the Holts Summit AT&T Long Lines site.
According to the 1960 and 1966 Long Lines maps, the path between Jefferson City and Holts Summit carried only television traffic. (Interestingly, KRCG-TV — the only television station for Jefferson City — was located north of Holts Summit.) The path was “upgraded” to also carry telephone traffic around 1967 when a tower was erected at the Jefferson City central office. It can be inferred that the Eldon path was brought online around that time. The Jefferson City-Eldon path was part of a “short-haul” Southwestern Bell Telephone route that carried telephone traffic around the central Missouri region, and was expanded to eventually include a site in Russellville.
Aside from microwave relay, Jefferson City had cable (non-coaxial) routes to Knob Noster and Kingdom City.
Today, Brightspeed has a DMS-100 switch located at the Jefferson City central office. The Jefferson City DMS-100 is host to several Remote Switching Centers (RSCs) located throughout the Jefferson City region. According to the Local Calling Guide database, RSCs hosted by JFCYMOXADS0 include Brazito, Clarksburg, California, Centertown, Eugene, Holts Summit, New Bloomfield, Russellville, St. Thomas and Taos. The microwave tower from 1967, and its associated horn-reflector antennas, have long been removed from the building.
Photos: April 2, 2025
These photos show the updated Brightspeed branding, which is featured throughout the property and on all of the company’s vehicles. “CenturyLink is dead” here.
Photos: August 2021
I took these photos on August 2, 2021.
History
My father grew up in Jefferson City and remembers having a neighbor who worked as a telephone operator at this facility. He also remembers the site having the pairs of KS-15676 antennas pointed toward Holts Summit and Eldon, which have long since been removed. As a kid, his neighborhood in Jefferson City was still on a party line.
1967 antenna structure addition
A story published in the February 17, 1967, edition of The Daily Capital News reported on the construction of the antenna structure atop the Jefferson City central office. The article suggests the Jefferson City office was owned by Capital City Telephone Company, and was co-located by the Bell System for toll service.
According to a story in the Feb. 5, 1969, issue of the Jefferson City Post-Tribune, Capital City Telephone Company “took over several telephone companies surrounding Jefferson City in 1964.” Southwestern Bell owned a 30 percent stake in the business, another article reported.
An advertisement in the Jan. 8, 1971, issue of the Post-Tribune said Capital City Telephone Company was a member of United Telephone Company, which later became Sprint, Embarq, CenturyLink and eventually Brightspeed. The July 2, 1969, issue of the Post-Tribune specified United purchased CCTC in April 1968.
Microwave tower contract is let
Madison Development Corp., of Jefferson City, announced Thursday that a contract had been awarded to Roy A. Scheperle Construction Co. for the construction of a microwave tower in the 300 block of Madison Street.
The tower will contain radio relay equipment owned and operated by Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. in providing long distance circuits to the Jefferson City toll center. The toll center is located in the offices of the Capital City Telephone Co. at 319 Madison St.
The attachment of microwave horns atop the structure will complete a line-of-sight wave path to the Holts Summit tower owned by American Telephone and Telegraph Co., providing access to AT&T’s transcontinental communications system.
While most microwave towers are skeletal in structure and taper toward the top, this facility will be a 21-feet-by-27-feet continuous dimension from top to bottom and will be a fully-enclosed building.
The tower will reach upward approximately 141 feet from the Madison Street elevation to an elevation of 763 feet above sea level.
Demolition of a three-story building at 311 Madison St. must be completed before construction can be started. Completion of the facility is scheduled for early June.