The offices - historically speaking

I'm going to begin the historical timeline in the year 1953. No, that was not the year I was born, nor the year I came to Omaha. It's a year at which I have a fairly good understanding of the way the Omaha area's phone system was. (Yes, I still have some unanswered questions about that era.) It was a stable period in time, and the Omaha area had a variety of types of central offices, from manual ('Numberrrr pleassse') to crossbar, the 'high tech' of the time.

I do plan to do at least one post on the history of Omaha's central offices prior to 1953 ('How we got here.'), but that will come at a later date.

The physical offices at the time, and the central offices (prefixes, exchanges) within them were easy to enumerate and study.

In 1953, Omaha used a 2-4 dialing plan, two letters for the exchange name and four digits for the line number. Council Bluffs used a mixed 4 and 5 digit plan. At the time, Council Bluffs and Omaha were long distance from each other, but I'm including it in my discussion since the two calling areas essentially became one in the early 1970s. At the time, Carter Lake, politically in Iowa but geographically on the Nebraska side of the river, was included in Omaha's dialing plan and toll-free calling area. Some duplicate exchange names (LAke, YEllowstone) were used to give Carter Lake subscribers somewhat of their own identity.

In 1953 the Omaha toll-free calling area included all of metropolitan Omaha, Bellevue, Irvington (then a distinct rural community), and I believe it extended to Boys Town, although this may have been something of a FX situation.

Let's review the physical offices and COs within them:

1. Douglas Street, the main downtown central office. The 'Old Building' as it was sometimes known. This housed four COs at the time: ATlantic, JAckson, HArney, and WEbster. All were Panel at the time, but ATlantic and JAckson were shortly to be converted to the Latest And Greatest #5 Crossbar. The building stands today, housing the successors to the offices listed among many others.
   
   An interesting bit of telephone trivia, and a true 'first' for Omaha, is that the ATlantic office was Ma Bell's first full-scale subscriber-dial ('machine switched') Panel central office ever! This dates back to 1921. Panel switches had been used during the 19-teens as automated B-boards in New Jersey, but Omaha's Atlantic office was Mother's proof-of-concept roll-out for the dial telephone in a major metropolitan area.
   
   The Douglas office served the central business district, extending north to about Lake St. or so, west almost to 40th., and south to Deer Park Boulevard or so. Carter Lake (YEllowstone, previously LAke) was served from this office, but that is a topic in and of itself and it will be discussed in a separate item.
   
   
2. Izard Street, the 'West Omaha' office. In 1953 this housed three COs, WAlnut, GLendale, and the brand-new #1 Crossbar switch which hosted REgent and soon to be CApital. WAlnut and GLendale were Panel, Omaha's second pre-WWII dial installation. As with most CO buildings of that vintage, it's still standing today and houses the successors of the legacy prefixes among many others.
   
   The Izard office had the largest geographic service area of any Omaha office in 1953. In the urban core, it extended east to 30th. St. in parts, north to Ames in one little 'tongue', south to the vicinity of the main-line UPRR tracks, and westward to a vast area stretching from the southwest 'burbs to Boys Town, to the village of Irvington. The Izard service area was incrementally decreased as new offices were constructed.
   
   
3. Fowler Street, the 'North Omaha' office. This building housed PLeasant and PRospect on a recent #1 crossbar switch. KEnwood, which still had manual service at the time, was soon to be added to the new Crossbar switch.
   
   
4. O Street, the 'South Omaha' office. Another postwar #1 Crossbar serving the MArket and ORchard exchanges. Again, still stands today, housing the successors of the legacy offices plus others.
   
   O street served metro Omaha from Deer Park Boulevard or so southward into the north end of Bellevue, and at the time the community of Ralston.
   
   
5. Bellevue. Kind of the enigma of the bunch at this point in time. I don't know much about it. I have reason to believe that it was a dial office of some kind, but this was too early for it to be the #5 Crossbar installation which served Bellevue for many years.
   
   
6. Council Bluffs, so close but yet so far! Council Bluffs was served by two Step offices at the time, the first known as 'Council Bluffs' and the second known as 'Council Bluffs 3'. Council Bluffs used a mixed 4/5 digit dialing plan. Four digits were used except for numbers beginning with '3', which required 5 digits. Omaha and Council Bluffs were long-distance from one-another, although next-door neighbors, and no direct subscriber dialing between the two.
   

That is an overview of Omaha's 'legacy' dial offices.

Additional information or comments will be appreciated.