From the June 24, 1938 edition of the Vineyard Gazette:

Only a few years ago everyone who wanted to use a telephone on the Vineyard had to turn the little hand crank on the telephone box. In 1929 the Vineyard Haven exchange went over from the old hand generator type of equipment to the common battery system under which it is only necessary to lift the receiver to signal the operator. On Tuesday of this week, the Edgartown exchange went over, and the hand crank is now an institution of yesterday.

The opening of the new telephone exchange at Edgartown is one more in a long succession of changes which mark the development of communication on Martha’s Vineyard.

The first telephone instrument was installed on the Island in 1882, in the store occupied by S. C. Luce in Vineyard Haven. The building was destroyed in the fire of 1884. The next instrument was installed in the drug store of Dr. William Leach at Oak Bluffs, and later there was an extension of the line to Edgartown, with a pay station at the store of Richard G. Shute.

The first central office was in a room at the head of Union street, in Vineyard Haven. This office was established about 1890 when increasing demand made it necessary to have a main switching station and several circuits controlled by an operator. Soon there were seventy telephones on the Island.

The Bell Telephone Co. first came to the Island in 1887. Because the company did not extend its lines into the rural districts, Dr. Charles F. Lane began (early in 1895) the construction of an independent system. He engaged P. B. Nickerson and a gang of linemen to put up a line from what was then Cottage City to Vineyard Haven, thence to West Chop, Makonikey, Lambert’s Cove, North Tisbury and West Tisbury. Later on, the lines were extended to Edgartown and in other directions.

Stephen C. Luce of Vineyard Haven became manager for the Southern Massachusetts Telephone Co. in 1896 and continued until the number of telephones had increased to 450, and a new set-up was demanded by the growth of service. The telephone office for years was in Mr. Luce’s store at the corner of Main and Church streets, Vineyard Haven.

The first telephone communication with the mainland was in February, 1893. But this was experimental. It was not until 1901 that a long distance pay station was installed in the Harbor View hotel at Edgartown, this being a considerable innovation and sign of progress.

Edgartown did not have a telephone exchange until 1921, At 9 in the morning of June 15, 1921, the cutover occurred, under the direction of Erwin C. Burleigh who was then manager for the Island district.

Until 1921 all telephones on the Island had the hand cranks of ancient memory. With the opening of the fine new building in Vineyard Haven in 1929, most of the Island went over to the common battery system. This improvement for Edgartown was rumored the next year, but although a new switchboard was installed at Edgartown in 1930, the depression seriously checked the company’s plans for development.

The imposition of toll charges between Edgartown and Vineyard Haven came in 1921, when the Edgartown exchange was opened. The company had planned to charge a ten cent toll for each call, but after a bitter fight and hearings held by the state Department of Public Utilities, this was cut in half. For yours a special line was set aside in the Vineyard Haven exchange for Edgartown business men who wished to be listed there so that their customers could call them without paying a nickel.

Tuesday of this week meant various things to various persons. For one thing, it was quite a day because of the cutover of the new Edgartown telephone exchange. For another, it was the occasion of the summer solstice. Freely interpreted, this phrase means the stance of the sun. On Tuesday the sun reached its farthest distance from the Equator, and its greatest declination north, ninety degrees from the vernal equinox and ninety degrees also from the autumnal equinox.

For a few days around summer solstice, the sun appears to stand still; that is, its elevation at noonday seems to be the same. But the days no longer grow longer, and the nights no longer grow shorter. Even as summer is coming in, and the vacation season is just opening in full flower at last, the seeds of fall are sown and the slow process is set under way by which the vacation season is to be closed in cool twilights.

Midsummer Day does not come until three days after the solstice, which makes today the observance of that old occasion. The date was fixed because it fell about the time of the solstice. If we were living long ago and far away, we would have taken notice of last night as one of great significance to love and lovers. With our generation, however, the times most important to lovers are still to come, when the season really gets under way, and sands are warmer and moons are brighter.

Compiled by Hilary Wall
library@mvgazette.com