Colorado Telephone Company

Colorado Telephone Company. 112 West D Street. , In 1874, the Central Colorado Improvement Co. (Wm. J. Palmer and Thomas C. Parrish) sold the property to Mayland Cuthbert, trustee, for $1,475. In 1880, Benjamin Hough sold this land to Horace N. Banks for the sum of $200. In 1883, the property sold for $3,000 to Lorenz Stumpf. C. F. Ray purchased the property for $4,500 in 1887. , Frederick O. Vaille introduced telephone service to Pueblo in 1880. The Colorado Telephone Company was originally located at 408 North Santa Fe Avenue and moved to D Street in 1899. In 1911, the name changed to the Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Co. , The company's day of outstanding community service occurred on June 3, 1921. This was the day the female switchboard operators became heroines. It had been raining for several days and upriver the Schaefer Dam broke. The City was alerted to the oncoming flood. The women stayed at their posts calling people down river warning them of the flood. Untold numbers of lives were saved; but the women were trapped in the building. Once power was lost, the women moved to the third floor, played a Victrola and danced to wile the hours away until they were rescued by men in rowboats from Lake Clara. , Byron Thady, the only man present, was awarded a gold Theodore N. Vail medal for saving the company's cable records when he ventured down onto the flooded first floor. Josephine Pryor, the chief day operator, received a silver medal for her leadership and the other 13 women received bronze medals. , The telephone company moved from the D Street building in 1954 when dial conversion was introduced. , Gary and Ida Anzuini renovated the building in 1998 with office spaces and apartments. , This project funded by a grant from the Colorado Historical Society State Historical Fund, Historic Pueblo Business Center Association, Security Title Guaranty Co., Kathie White, Mary Orf, John Demas, Friends and The Farley Foundation