Missouri Central Offices

It houses a Nortel RSC hosted by the Kirksville DMS100. Boonville is one of the many towns founded by Daniel Boon. He also founded Defiance, Missouri.

The detail over the door is typical of Central Offices built in the 1930s and 40s. Most people looking for the office drive past it many times because it looks so much like a school building.

Old Exchanges: TUlip

ADVANCE	Houses a No. 5 ESS Remote Switching Module hosted by the Cape Girardeau No. 5 ESS. Old Exchanges: RAymond
ANTONIA	It houses a remote switch hosted by the Fenton, MO No. 5ESS switch.
BENTON	Home to another No.5ESS remote switch module hosted by Cape Girardeau. It has the typical rural signage that marks it as an SBC office. Old Exchanges: KIngsdale
BISMARK	Home to a Lucent No. 5ESS remote switching module, part of the Park Hills switch cluster. I don't know if this farming town was named for Otto Bismark but, if it was, the founders misspelled the name and it stuck.
BLOOMFIELD	Houses a Nortel Remote Switch hosted by the DMS100 in Sikeston, Missouri. Old Exchanges: LOcust
BLOOMSDALE	Houses a Nortel remote switch hosted by the Festus DMS100.
BOIS D ' ARC	It is located in the rural area west of Springfield, Missouri.
BONNE TERRE	It serves the old lead mining town from a No.5 ESS RSM which is hosted in Park Hills (most people still call Park Hills by its old name, Flat River, MO.).
BOONVILLE	It houses a Nortel RSC hosted by the Kirksville DMS100. Boonville is one of the many towns founded by Daniel Boon. He also founded Defiance, Missouri. The detail over the door is typical of Central Offices built in the 1930s and 40s. Most people looking for the office drive past it many times because it looks so much like a school building. Old Exchanges: TUlip
BOWLING GREEN	Home to a Nortel DMS Remote hosted by the Hannibal, MO DMS100. Old Exchanges: EAstgate
CAMPBELL	This is another of the Erricson remotes which is hosted by the Kennett, MO AXE10. Note the external earthquake bracing first used in New Madrid, MO.
CAPE GIRARDEAU	Houses a No. 5 ESS and is the host for a cluster of RSMs in Southeast Missouri. It is one of the few Central Offices in Missouri which displays the new SBC logo. It is another office which once had a radio tower atop it. Old Exchanges: EDgewater
CARDWELL	Houses an AXE remote hosted by the Kennett AXE10 Erricson switch. This rural office is only separated from the residence in the picture by 4 feet.
CARUTHERSVILLE	This is another of the southeast Missouri Central Offices which sits on the alluvial soil of the Mississippi river on top of the New Madrid fault. Like New Madrid and Hayti the building itself could not be earthquake braced so SBC built an earthquake braced frame and attached the building to it. As in Hayti they covered the majority of the front of the office with sheet steel. It houses an Erricson AXE remote hosted by the Kennett switch. Caruthersville is also home to Casino Aztar. Old Exchange: EDison
CEDAR HILL	Home to a remote switch hosted by the Fenton, MO No. 5ESS. Identical in construction to Antonia.
CHAFFEE	Houses a 5ESS remote switch module hosted by the Cape Girardeau switch. Old Exchanges: TUlip
CHARLESTON	Home to a Nortel remote hosted by the Sikeston DMS100. It is another of the Mississippi river towns which required retrofitted earthquake bracing in the 1990s using the New Madrid model of building a resistant steel cage and connecting the building to that. Old Exchanges: MUrray
CHESTERFIELD	This Central Office was built in the mid 1980s. It was the first 5ESS office providing the ISDN feature in the St. Louis metropolitan area. When first built it was surrounded by pasture and was a single story building. By 1996 growth in the area had exploded. The office need to add a second floor. The city of Chesterfield at this point decided that the office was not aesthetic enough and required SBC to give it an appearance more consistent with the residential area which had sprung up around it. On the right there is an emergency generator hidden behind a brick enclosure which appears to be part of the building proper.
CLARKSVILLE	This river town sits on the banks of the Mississippi. The original building was the small hut at the rear of this picture. The building addition is from the 1950s for the 355 Community Dial Office step by step switch. Today the office is home to a Nortel remote switch concentrator hosted by the DMS100 in Hannibal, Mo. Clarksville sits at the base of bluffs on the Mississippi river which offer a spectacular view of the river. The town has a chair ski lift which takes tourists to the top of the bluffs year round. The green paint is quite unusual for an SBC building and makes it easy to miss as you drive by it on the street. Old Exchanges: CIrcle
DESOTO	Desoto is a Nortel remote hosted by the Festus, Missouri DMS100.
DEXTER	Houses a Nortel remote switch hosted by the Sikeston, MO DMS100. It also sports the banner seen at the Sikeston office which proudly proclaims that SBC is building the Missouri information superhighway inside.
EAST PRAIRIE	Houses a Nortel Remote Switch Concentrator hosted by the Sikeston DMS100. It was earthquake braced in the 1980s but it was such a substantial building that it only required a bit of diagonal steel reinforcement as seen on the front wall.
ELDON	Houses a host No. 5ESS switch for the Lake of the Ozarks cluster. It is considered a plum assignment for Local Field Operations because of its proximity to the Lake of the Ozarks and all of the attendant recreational opportunities there. Old Exchange: EXpress 2
EUREKA	There is a No. 5ESS Remote Switching Module in this office hosted by the Chesterfield, MO No. 5ESS. This was a sleepy little country town as far west as you could go in St. Louis county in 1970. Then "6 Flags over Mid-America" was built here. It is still growing. Old Exchanges: JUstice
FARMINGTON	Home to a No. 5 ESS switch.
FENTON	Host CO for numerous remotes. Old Exchanges: DIamond 3 and DAvis 6
FESTUS	Festus is also home to an OSP engineering team and a host switch to numerous remote CO's..
FISK	Houses a Lucent RSM hosted by the Poplar Bluff No. 5ESS. Old Exchanges: WOodland
FLAT RIVER	Flat River houses a No. 5 ESS switch. Although the office code is "Flat River" the town changed its name to Park Hills about six years ago, yet CO kept its original designation.
FREDRICKTOWN	Houses a Lucent No. 5ESS Remote Switching Module hosted by the Farmington 5ESS host. This office is very difficult to find because the center of town is the traditional town square which can be entered from north, south east or west, on Main street. Fredricktown is the county seat of Madison County (not the one with the bridges). Old Exchanges: STerling
FULTON	It is home to a remote hosted by the Eldon No. 5 ESS. Fulton is the town in which Winston Churchill gave his famous "Iron curtain" speech. Old Exchanges: MIdway 2
GIDEON	Houses an Erricson remote switch hosted by the AXE10 in Kennett, MO. It serves the 1111 population of this boot heel town.
HANNIBAL	Houses a DMS100 switch which is the host for the SBC northeast, MO cluster. Over the door is a piece of stone with the old Bell System logo in bas relief and the company name chiseled into it. Hannibal was, of course, the childhood home of Samuel Clemens and Molly Brown (unsinkable). Old Exchanges: ACadmey
HARVESTER	Houses a DMS100 switch and a 5ESS remote switch module for ISDN services hosted by the Chestnut Central Office in St. Louis. Old Exchanges: NAtional and HIlltop
HAYTI	Houses an Ericson remote hosted by the AXE10 in Kennett, Missouri. It is another building which is on the New Madrid fault which could not itself be reinforced to resist earthquakes. So SBC used the same solution here that was pioneered at New Madrid, the earthquake resistant steel frame cage. I cannot determine why they covered the majority of the front facade with a steel wall, something not done in New Madrid. Old Exchanges: FLeetwood
HIGH RIDGE	High Ridge is home to a remote switch which is hosted by the Fenton, MO No. 5ESS.
HILLSBORO	Remote switch, serving the Jefferson County seat.
HORNERSVILLE	Houses an Erricson remote switch hosted by the Kennett AXE10. This serves a town with just under 700 population in 2006. Again, the building had to be externally earthquake braced in the New Madrid manner.
HOUSE SPRINGS	This is actually an old farm house with no plumbing. (Note the "Johnny-on-the-spot" behind the utility pole at the left of the office.) This office once housed a 355 CDO step by step switch for a couple of hundred subscribers. The floor had to be reinforced with stell to allow the installation of the step by step equipment. When the step had to be replaced the only digital switch host available was the Maxville No. 5ESS. So this office is now the home of a Remote Switch Module.
IMPERIAL	It is hosted by the Maxville 5ESS
JACKSON	Houses a No. 5 ESS Switch.
JONESBURG	No switch in this building. It started life as a repeater station in the Bell System. It, like many small offices have proven invaluable to the Bell Operating Companies as fiber regenerator points in their SONET networks. It started as the small square building on the right and has been expanded twice. Old Exchanges: HUntley
KANSAS CITY 22 "INDEPENDENCE"	Independence is the home town of President Harry Truman.
KENNETT	This office houses an Erricson AXE10 host switch which serves several remotes in the Missouri bootheel. Note the hoisting I beam towards the rear of the building with the second floor loading door directly underneath it. The antennae visible in the picture are not part of the office, they belong to the police department building hidden in this picture. Old Exchanges: TUlip
LINN	Houses the Erricson AXE10 switch cluster hub in middle Missouri.
LOUISIANA	It houses a Nortel remote switch hosted by the Hannibal, MO DMS100. Old Exchanges: SKyline