Bell Telephone Exchange Building

The story

Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com

The Bell Telephone Exchange Building is a former telephone exchange at 8-12 N. Preston St. in Philadelphia, built around 1900 in the Georgian Revival style by architects Eugene Stopper and John Windrim.

Why it's listed

It was listed under criteria A and C, with local-level significance in communications and architecture. Its period of significance runs from about 1900, when it was built, to 1928, when it ceased operating as a Bell telephone exchange.

Physical character

The four-story, nine-bay building has brick walls laid in Flemish bond on a granite foundation, under a gambrel roof with a deep, dentiled tin cornice. Its arch-headed entrance sits in an arched granite surround above four stone steps, and one keystone is carved with the image of a bell. In the 1980s, cement blocks sealed several windows, including two on the third floor, and in 1998 the building was undergoing rehabilitation.

Historical context

Bell Telephone Company bought the North Preston Street lots in 1896 and used the building as a telephone exchange from 1900 until 1928, when it sold the property to Abraham Graboyes. The building then held light industrial and commercial tenants, including a machine shop, an upholsterer and a historic document reproduction firm, before standing vacant by 1998.