Ahoy Hoy! Early Telephone Lines at the Old Kentucky Home Boardinghouse
A candlestick-style phone is on display inside Julia Wolfe’s Old Kentucky Home boardinghouse. It is stamped “Made in the USA. PAT. Jan. 14, 1913. Also called a “desk stand” phone, the candlestick model was introduced in 1892. In Look Homeward, Angel Thomas Wolfe writes several times about a telephone in the boardinghouse. When young Eugene Gant escaped the chaos of the boardinghouse to his father’s home, Eliza Gant, “Forgetful of him during the day’s press . . . summoned him at night over the telephone, demanding his return . . . absorbed in the management of Dixieland for days, she would suddenly remember his absence from meals, and call for him angrily across the phone.” It is not exactly clear when the Old Kentucky Home boardinghouse had its first telephone installed, but it was certainly before 1913.
The Asheville Telephone Company first incorporated in Fall of 1885. The company worked quickly to complete the installation of the area’s first telephone system. On December 31st, 1885, The Asheville Citizen reported everything was ready for the new year. The newspaper noted “All the ladies of the city will soon have an opportunity to talk as much as they please, and hold sweet converse with friends without leaving their homes.” By January 1st, 1886, Asheville’s phones were officially up and running. The following day, it was observed, a “good deal of inexperience has yet to be overcome.” Basic instructions on placing calls and how best to answer phones were printed in the newspaper. “To answer: -Ring your bell; with your earphone to your ear, ask ‘what will you have?’ When through talking, tell each other ‘good bye;’ and always ring your bell when you have finished.” Alexander Graham Bell, credited with inventing and patenting the first modern telephone in 1876, preferred the more nautical telephone greeting of “Ahoy!” or “Ahoy Hoy!” Sadly, this did not become common practice.
The 1887 Asheville City Directory boasted “a telephone exchange has been in useful and successful operation for a year.” Several businesses now advertised their telephone number. The numbers were just one or two digits. N.W. Girdwood, advertised “Order Anthracite Coal, Telephone 50.” Phone numbers were not yet a part of individual directory listings. The earliest mention in the newspaper of a telephone number associated with the boardinghouse at 48 Spruce Street appears on October 24th, 1903 for “The Kentucky.” The proprietress, Mrs. Greene, was assigned phone no. 733. Later, Mrs. Greene operated other boardinghouses, and 733 moved with her.
The 1907–1908 city directory notes Julia Wolfe as the new owner and proprietress of the Old Kentucky Home, but does not yet give a phone number. By 1908 Julia Wolfe is using phone no. 769. The number was printed on her business cards and appears in a 1908 advertisement for the boardinghouse in The Asheville Citizen. Phone 769 continued to be listed in the newspaper through portions of 1915 before a new number, later that same year, 2757, became associated with the boardinghouse. On May 24, 1920, The Asheville Citizen posted a retirement sale at W. O. Wolfe’s monument shop using the same phone number as the boardinghouse for his business. The number changed yet again by 1928 when it begins to be listed as no. 4449-W. Today you can give us a ring at 828–253–8304 and say “ahoy.”
