North Pittsburgh Telephone Company
Central Office Building & Miscellaneous Pictures

 

The following are pictures of Central Office Buildings and other miscellaneous pictures throughout the former North Pittsburgh territory.

Here are some pictures of the Central Office Buildings in the former North Pittsburgh (now Consolidated Communications) territory.

Cooperstown

Cooperstown is a small central office that serves the majority of Middlesex Township and the southern portion of Penn Township in Butler county. It is located on PA Route 8 on the west side of the road just north of intersection of Route 8 and the southern arm of PA Route 228. 

 

Originally a Step by Step office, it now houses a Nortel Remote Switching Center

Prefixes: (724) 898

Old EXchange Name: TWinbrook-8

Criders Corners

Criders Corners is a medium sized central office that serves the majority Cranberry Township, Seven Fields Borough and the western part of Adams Township in Butler County and the northern portion of Marshall Township in Allegheny County. It is located in Cranberry Township on a side street off of modern PA Route 228 near the interchange with Interstate 79.

 

 

Originally a Step by Step, this office later housed an Automatic Electric #2EAX and now a Nortel Remote Switching Center.

Prefixes: (724) 741, 742, 772, 776, 778, 779

Old EXchange Name: PResident-6

Curtisville

Curtisville is a small central office that serves the majority of West Deer township in Allegheny county. It is located on a side street in a residential neighborhood just off of Saxonburg Blvd. It is the only central office that has a fence around it.

Originally a Step by Step office, it now houses a Nortel Remote Switching Center

Prefixes: (724) 265

Old EXchange Name: COlfax-5

Freeport

Freeport is a small central office located a few blocks from downtown Freeport that serves the town of Freeport in Westmoreland county as well as a small portion of Buffalo township in Butler county.

Originally a Step by Step office, it now houses a Nortel Remote Switching Center

This central office is the only one that does not have a EXchange name plaque on the side of the building.

 

Freeport was originally served by the Freeport Telephone Company. North Pittsburgh purchased the Freeport Telephone Company in 1954. It originally was housed in what is now an apartment complex and storefront in downtown Freeport. This picture shows a sign that is above the doorway for the old former phone company that was once housed there.

 

 

Here is  closeup of the sign above the door.

 

 

 

 

 

Prefixes: (724) 294, 295

Old EXchange Name: CYpress-5

Gibsonia

Gibsonia is the headquarters for the North Pittsburgh Telephone Company. The Gibsonia central office serves all of Richland Township, western portions of West Deer Township, northern portions of Hampton Township, and eastern portions of Pine Township in Allegheny county, plus the southern portion of Middlesex Township in Butler county.

 

At one time this building housed a Step by Step switch and later an Automatic Electric #1EAX. It now houses at least one Nortel DMS-100/200 local end office & regional tandem switch. North Pittsburgh's sister company Penn Telecom is believed to own a second DMS-100 switch for CLEC functions.

       

 

The Gibsonia complex is quite large, holding several administrative buildings, maintenance garage and a cellular tower (Verizon Wireless & Nextel, and maybe others).  The complex is located on PA Route 910 at the intersection of Ewalt Road in Richland Township.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note the manhole cover - it clearly says "Bell System". This manhole cover is located on Richland Road at its intersection of PA Route 910, just down the street to the right of the main building shown above. Obviously these are (or were at one time) the long distance trunks connecting North Pittsburgh to the rest of world.

 

 

Prefixes: (724) 443, 444, 449

Old EXchange Name: HIltop-3

Mars

No, this central office building is not on another planet, but is located in southern Butler county. Mars is a small central office located on the southern end of town that serves all of Mars borough as well as portions of Adams and Middlesex Townships and Valencia borough in Butler county, plus the northern part of Pine Township in Allegheny county.

 

Originally a Step by Step office, it now houses a Nortel Remote Switching Center

Prefixes: (724) 625

Old EXchange Name: NAtional-5

Saxonburg

Saxonburg is unique in the North Pittsburgh territory since it has two distinct central office buildings.

The main building is a small central office located within Saxonburg borough on Main Street that serves Saxonburg along with portions of Penn, Jefferson and Winfield Townships.

 

The second building is an even smaller central office that serves Buffalo Township and is located on PA Route 228 just west of its intersection with PA Route 356. It is believed that there is no longer any switching equipment in this building anymore and all switching is done at the main building.

Originally a Step by Step office, at least the main building now houses a Nortel Remote Switching Center.

 

Prefixes: (724) 352, 353, 360

Old EXchange Names: FLanders-2 (top) and FLanders-3 (bottom)

Wexford

Wexford is a medium sized central office that serves the majority of Pine & Marshall Townships, Franklin Park Borough and Bradford Woods Borough in Allegheny county. The central office is located on PA Route 910 just west of its intersection with US Route 19. 

The shrubs in front of the central office are recent additions as part of a recent beautification of the nearby intersection of PA Route 910 and Church Road as "Old Wexford".

Originally a Step by Step, this office later housed an Automatic Electric #2EAX and now a Nortel DMS-100 host switch.

Prefixes: (724) 933, 934, 935, 940

Old EXchange Name: WEstmore-5

Other Pictures of Note

This is a modern underground outside plant pedestal box. It is located in a new subdivision (as of January 2006) that is under construction off of Richland Road in Richland Township (Gibsonia). Note how North Pittsburgh is trying to promote themselves as a "broadband" company. Also, note the number for repair service. Someone should order some new stickers, as the area code for the region is now 724, not 412.

 

 

Prior to 1997, North Pittsburgh maintained a large number of Automatic Electric style pay phones throughout their territory. In 1997, North Pittsburgh sold all their pay phones to a COCOT (Customer Owned Coin Operated Telephone) vendor in Richland Township. In 2004, this company either went out of business or decided to remove virtually all the pay phones, selling a few to another COCOT vendor.

What is left now are a bunch of empty pay phone booths throughout the North Pittsburgh territory. Here is one example in North Park, located by the Boat House. Note the modern emergency call box next to the abandonded phone booth.

 

 

 

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