As early as 1880, the Altoona Telephone Company had extended its wires to a number of the city’s principal businesses, including the First National Bank, the Altoona Iron Company, Allegheny Furnace, the Pennsylvania Railroad freight depot, and the Logan House. So it’s not surprising that the Wopsononock Hotel offered telephone service for guests’ convenience when it opened on July 1, 1889.

Telephone service in Pennsylvania began shortly after the invention of the telephone, with the first intercity phone call in the state occurring in 1877 in Philadelphia. Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated his invention at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, and the first phone lines for business use appeared shortly after.