Conroe Telephone Exchange

Before 1899, a long-distance telephone line ran from Houston to Gilbert's Drug Store in Conroe. In 1899, Mr. Gilbert and Albert Madeley began a local telephone exchange in the store, and soon afterward George Madeley purchased it and named it Conroe Communication Company. He operated the company from the Madeley Building on this site. In 1929, George Madeley sold the company to the owners of the Lufkin Telephone Exchange. At that time, the Conroe exchange had a six-position switchboard, two toll operators, one rural operator, and three local operators. By the late 1940s, the office was too small for the outdated equipment it housed. In 1954, a dial system was installed in a new exchange building. In 1985, the system was reorganized into the Lufkin-Conroe Telephone Exchange, Inc.

Conroe, Texas · United States