HistoricSiteMarkers
Progressive & Modern Era

Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. Building

San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Announced as early as 1919, the Woodlawn Exchange of the Southwestern Telephone Company became operational at midnight on July 14, 1923. Serving growing residential areas of the city’s north side, including the Alta Vista, Beacon Hill and Laurel Heights neighborhoods, its location within a mostly residential area made walking to work easy for employees in an era when most families were just purchasing their first automobiles. The facility was initially planned by the Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Co., which in 1920 transferred the deed to the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. The building’s design included battery rooms and a cable vault, locker rooms, an operators’ cafeteria and a grass tennis court on the adjacent grounds. Thirty-five operators were standing by to connect customers on the opening night. In 1936, the building was sold to Tobin Aerial Surveys. After training as a combat pilot in World War I, San Antonio native Edgar G. Tobin transferred his skills to creating some of the first aerial photographs for commercial purposes, including oil leases, land maps and property ownership maps. The company grew, operating a fleet of planes from Stinson Field in San Antonio. From their headquarters here, the company coordinated aerial mapping of large portions of the United States during World War II. In 1955, the building was sold to the United Cerebral Palsy Association (UCP). At this time, a hydraulic piston elevator was installed. UCP advocated for those afflicted with cerebral palsy and their families. UCP sold the building in 1963, and it was converted to residential use. The reinforced concrete building with multitoned red and brown brick has two stories and a basement. Its simplified Colonial Revival Style design includes stone cornice and entrance details, and double-hung and transom windows. RECORDED TEXAS HISTORIC LANDMARK – 2022

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Opened at midnight on July 14, 1923, this Colonial Revival building housed Southwestern Bell's Woodlawn telephone exchange, close enough to San Antonio's north-side neighborhoods that its thirty-five operators could walk to work. In 1936 it became home to Tobin Aerial Surveys, founded by WWI combat pilot Edgar Tobin, who pioneered commercial aerial photography and coordinated wartime mapping of much of the United States from these offices. Later serving the United Cerebral Palsy Association, the building was finally converted to residences.

Why it matters

One modest building tracks two American revolutions in how the country connected and saw itself — the spread of the telephone and the birth of aerial mapping, both accelerated by an age of automobiles and flight.

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  • · Edgar G. Tobin

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Industry & InventionInnovation & FlightLandmark

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