In 1962 the Southern Bell Telephone Company built a new two-story brick building on Rutland Street in Covington to house its local operations. The first telephone exchange in Covington was at the corner of Rutland Street and Columbia Street (the "center of town"), the second telephone exchange was on Rutland at New Hampshire, and the third, this one, was still on Rutland, at the corner of Massachusetts St. So the phone company has always been on Rutland, just occasionally moving a block westward over the years.
Click on the images to make them larger.
One of the few buildings in Covington that has a basement.
St. Tammany Tribune Nov. 23, 1962
One of the first photographs I took as a news reporter in Covington was on the second floor of this building, where all the long distance operators were stationed in desks around the perimeter of the room, handling calls from throughout the area to points throughout the nation and world. Fleta Glass gave me a tour of the facility, and it was an amazing place at that time.
