The Rosemark Telephone Company
Exchange Building Museum
Located at 8727 Kerrville-Rosemark Road, the Rosemark Telephone Company Exchange
Building Museum allows you to step back in time, sit at the “switchboard” that the operator used to connect phone lines for over 50 years and look out the window where she would keep track of everything going on in the community. This unique piece of history tells the story of the Rosemark Telephone Company which was incorporated on December 9, 1911. The cost of a phone was $2.00 per month and it cost 10¢ to make a call to Memphis (that was “long distance.”) For many years the operator was Mima Winburn who was well known for saying “number please.” You could also call Ms. Winburn for all of the news in the community since most lines were “party lines.” Anyone picking up on the line could listen in. The museum has a collection of early telephone company equipment including the telephone line “insulators” which are “collectible” items today. The second room of the museum has a small collection of interesting photographs. Plan on visiting the museum when one of the local docents is there who can tell the stories of the phone company’s early days. The building is handicapped accessible and is part of the community park in the heart of
the Rosemark National Historic Rosemark.
For more details regarding the historic Rosemark Telephone Company see pages 386 and 452-53 of An Illustrated History of the People and Towns of Northeast Shelby County and South Central Tipton County.