Riggs Building Has Storied History As Former Telephone Exchange

To a younger generation that has grown up with cellphones and iPads, it may sound like something out of a science fiction story. Human operators connecting telephone lines or virtual circuits of digital systems to establish telephone calls. That was the system many telephone exchanges used through the first part of the 20th century.

One such location was the Severna Park Telephone Exchange. The first exchange was located in the back of the Grotsky store building, as author Nelson Molter recounted in his 1969 book “An Illustrated History of Severna Park, Anne Arundel County, Maryland.” In 1913, the system became part of the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company, with 26 telephones.

The telephone exchange moved several times, from Oscar Hatton’s house initially to the Lamon house on Maple Avenue — property owned by Severn School — to a house across the street. In 1938, the telephone exchange moved to Riggs Avenue, occupying one-half of the first floor of a two-story stucco building directly across from Severna Park Elementary School.

That building is now home to LaBarge Financial advisor Jason LaBarge and his team. A Round Bay resident, LaBarge was fascinated by the building’s history.

“I have always been interested in history and in antiques,” LaBarge said. “I wanted my practice to have an element of both, and when I heard the building was for sale, I jumped right at it.”

LaBarge was also told that the American Medical Association of Maryland offices were upstairs for over 20 years. “The building has been home to several doctors and dentists over the years, so many Severna Park residents got their teeth cleaned here or their cold treated here more than likely,” he said.

Starting in 1931, the telephone exchange was run by Minerva Howard, who had two daughters. Customers often paid their telephone bills at this location. One of Howard’s daughters, Lydia, who started working with her mother at the exchange when she was just 16, retired in 1981.

Severna Park historian Scott Jay compared Lydia to Sarah, the telephone operator for the town of Mayberry on “The Andy Griffith Show.”

“Lydia was the ‘go to’ if we wanted to know if school was open on snowy days or where our mothers were playing bridge,” Jay said.

As Molter explained in his book, there was no directory for people making calls.

“For local calls, you merely cranked the old-time battery telephone and asked the operator to give you the Smiths, the Jones, etc.,” Molter wrote. “When you left home to visit neighbors, you merely called the operator and asked her to switch your calls to the home where you were visiting. When you returned home, you always called the operator to ‘report in.’”

Following the conversion to the dial system in 1960, the Severna Park exchange became a part of the large Glen Burnie telephone complex. In 1975, the Severna Park exchange was moved again to a centralized office on Dorsey Road.