This Michigan City Was the First in the World to Get Phone Numbers

A lot of firsts happened in Detroit: the Ford assembly line, the first police woman in the U.S., and the first tri-colored 4-way traffic light all happened in Detroit.

But today I learned about this lesser known fact about the Motor City: did you have any idea Detroit was the first city in the world to get individual phone numbers?

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According to the Detroit Historical Society (DHS) the event of note happened three years after Alexander Graham Bell officially applied for a patent for the telephone and made his first phone call in 1876.

Writes the DHS,

1879: Detroit becomes the first city to assign individual telephone numbers.

To add some perspective to such a historical event, other large cities across the globe like London didn't even get their own individual phone numbers until 1937. Detroit was way ahead of the ball!

How Did They Used to Place Calls?

I'm a Millennial, so I grew up with technology and during a time when most homes had their own individual phone lines but how did folks place phone calls before the invention of phone numbers?

I've heard my parents talk about "party lines". For those unfamiliar, a party line was essentially one phone line that was shared by an entire neighborhood. Can you imagine needing to place a call but having to wait until your neighbor was finished with their own call? Does that mean the whole neighborhood could eavesdrop on your conversation?

However, in the period before individual phone numbers were assigned those looking to place a call would first get a hold of the operator, who would then route calls by name and connect them through a switchboard.

And just think-- these days we have an entire computer in our pocket!