Located at 319 Madison Street in downtown Jefferson City, Missouri, is a former independent telephone central office. The site also doubled as a relay site on the Long Lines microwave relay network.
The site is currently owned by BrightSpeed, formerly CenturyLink, a descendant of a “Baby Bell” company that was formed after the divestiture of the Bell System and RBOCs (Regional Bell Operating Companies, like Southwestern Bell) in 1984 and merged with an independent telco. The facility was originally owned by the Capital City Telephone Company, which was later acquired by United Telephone (later Sprint and Embarq.) It can be assumed the site is still used for switching and other similar purposes that it would have served in the Bell System days.
The 1960 and 1966 route maps show Jefferson City having a singular hop to Holts Summit, which was television-only. (Oddly enough, the local TV station at the time – KRCG – was, and still is, located in New Bloomfield, north of Holts Summit.)
In 1967, a short extension was built on top of the central office to hold the microwave antennas aimed at Holts Summit.
According to a later 1979 route map, Jefferson City’s role on the Bell System’s Long Lines network was expanded at some point between 1966 and 1979. An additional hop to Eldon was constructed. It is unknown for certain from the 1979 map whether this expansion also added telephone circuits to this route, but it can be assumed.
Jefferson City also had cable (not coaxial) routes to Knob Noster and Kingdom City.
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.
Update (March 1, 2025): According to TelcoData database, the Jefferson City central office is home to a Northern Telecom (Nortel) DMS100 host switch.
Update (April 2, 2025): According to the Local Calling Guide database, the Jefferson City DMS-100 is host to several Remote Switching Centers (RSCs) located throughout the Jefferson City region. RSCs hosted by JFCYMOXADS0 include Brazito, Clarksburg, California, Centertown, Eugene, Holts Summit, New Bloomfield, Russellville, St. Thomas and Taos.
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.
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.