Let’s take a step back in time to May 5, 1963.
That’s the day when Ladner and Beach Grove telephone subscribers were able to call and talk to friends and businesses in the Greater Vancouver area, including North Delta, Newton and Port Coquitlam, without a toll charge.
Reporting on the change to the telephone system in Delta at the time, the Optimist came across the above photo of one of the early phone switchboards and its operators.
It shows Evelyn Lord, later Mrs. A.W. Dennis, and Leila Lord, later Mrs. Harry Brennen, who were the operators in January 1912.
That switchboard was located in a building later occupied by Leblanc and McGuire on Delta Street.
The first telephone office was near the waterfront where Delta Freight Lines was later located.
