United Telephone Building

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 5, 2024

1. United Telephone Building Marker

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From the National Register Nomination prepared by Lloyd P. Holbrook, Sherman County Historical Society, Summer 2017:
Constructed in 1931, Goodland’s United Telephone Building is significant as an excellent local representative of the Art Deco style. Characterized by solid, rectilinear forms, colorful terra cotta geometrical design elements, and strong symmetry

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 11, 2025

2. United Telephone Building Marker

The marker is mounted on the left side of the west/front entrance.

of the whole, the 1931 building is an enduring influential example of workmanship and materials of the early 1930s. Constructed as the company offices and housing delicate telephone equipment, the fireproof building served as a communications facility for the United Telephone Company, with home offices at Abilene, Kansas. It served the same purpose from 1937 onward when United was taken over by the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. In 1990 a new building for digital equipment was built by Southwestern Bell and occupied in 1991, at which time the 1931 building ceased its use as a telephone utility. The building remained vacant until it was bought by Sherman County in 1994. In 2017 the county gifted the building to the Sherman County Historical Society.

Excerpt:  At the time the building was constructed, Main Street was a primary thoroughfare, Main Street brewing U.S. North Highway 40 in 1931 and changed to State Highway 24 in January 1936, remaining until the early 1940’s when Highway 24 was built south of the city. A hotel was across the street

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 5, 2024

3. Southwestern Bell Telephone Marker

(on right side of west/front entrance)
Southwestern
Bell Telephone
Company
—————
Erected 1931
Telephone Building

north, an opera house was directly west across Main Street, and a bank is diagonal northwest across Main Street yet today.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 5, 2024

4. United Telephone Building
(west/front facade - terra cotta detail)

From the National Register Nomination: The front is symmetrical with wide corner pilasters extending out from the building’s main body and containing a centered historic three over-three double-hung window at each story. Between the pilasters, the west façade features three sets of two historic three-over-three wooden windows at both stories. Below the parapet and above the light color tile are historic bronze letters spelling out “TELEPHONE BUILDING.”

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 11, 2025

5. United Telephone Building (west/front elevation)

Today the Telephone Building houses the Sherman County Historical Society.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 11, 2025

6. United Telephone Building (northwest elevation)

From the National Register Nomination:  Erected during May to October of 1931, it is a two-story brick Art Deco style structure with a flat roof behind a parapet. The building has distinctive Aztec clay tile exterior decorative elements, using colors of red, blue and yellow, contrasting against the light body tile color and brown brick. The Aztec motif extends along the parapet on the west elevation, facing Main Street, and along the north side facing 10th Street; this design is also above the windows on west and north sides, and outlines the five sets of windows facing west and north. Rectangular insets and top borders of terra cotta symbols grace the four pilasters forming the corners of the west and north facades. Single windows, one on each story are present in these four corner pilasters, with the exception of the eastern pilaster on the north façade, the lower part being an entry door from 10th Street. Two double windows are on the west first floor front with the main entry door and canopy between, and three double window sets are on the second story, resulting in a symmetrical appearance. The north façade has two sets of similar double windows with a single window between them. On the back side of the building is a lower first floor, which was originally a three-stall garage, and a second story which was added in 1970.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 6, 2024

7. Telephone Building Marker

(This supplemental marker has been removed from in front of the building entrance as of 9/9/2025.)

In 1902, the telephone came to Goodland through the Goodland Telephone Company. It was a central system, which meant that an operator must be present to patch through the calls. Over the years, the site of the company changed and in 1922, the stockholders sold their shares to the United Telephone Company.

By 1931, more than 1,000 telephones were being used in the city and a new building was proposed. The corner of 10th and Main Streets became the location and in 1931, the United Telephone Building was built.

Colby Hamilton, an employee from the telephone company, oversaw the design and decoration of the building. Native American symbols were used both inside and outside, with telephone poles painted to resemble totems used as the beams in the ceiling. In 1937, the company merged with Southwestern Bell and in 1957, the mechanics of the telephones were removed.

The building was owned by the county but in 2017, it was given to the Sherman County Historical Society to rehouse the Parker Research Center.