Presidential Phone Call - Warwick, Rhode Island
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Rutherford B. Hayes was the first sitting U.S. President to be part of a telephone call. On June 29, 1877, Hayes was at the shoreline resort Rocky Point in Warwick, Rhode Island, when he spoke with Alexander Graham Bell who was in Providence.
Waymark Code: WM17FZJ
Location: Rhode Island, United States
Date Posted: 02/15/2023
Views: 1
Rutherford B. Hayes was the first sitting U.S. President to be part of a telephone call. On June 29, 1877, Hayes was at Rocky Point in Warwick, Rhode Island when he spoke with Alexander Graham Bell who was in Providence, Rhode Island. An historical marker which overlooks Narragansett Bay at what is now known as Rocky Point State Park retells the moment:
Presidential Phone Call
On the 29th of June, in the year 1877, the first Presidential phone call was made between Rutherford B. Hayes who was at Rocky Point and Alexander Graham Bell in Providence. Mr. Fred Gower, the managing agent of Professor Bell, moderated the call. The instrument resembled a rather large-sized bobbin.
"Mr. President, I am duly sensible of the great honor conferred upon me in thus for the first time presenting the speaking telephone to the attention of the President of the United States." The President listened carefully while a gradually increasing smile wreathed his lips. and wonder shone in his eves more and more. until he took the little instrument from his ear looked at it a moment in surprise, and remarked, "That is wonderful. Please speak a little more slowly." [as reported in the Providence Journal, June 29, 1877]
Accompanying the text are two illustrations on the left side of the plaque. The larger, background image is the view of a pier, paddle boat, and the public park as seen from the bay looking westward. Superimposed to its left side is an engraving which features President Hayes, in top coat and stove pipe hat, surrounded by a crowd of onlookers as he attended a clambake. A caption below reads: "FUN FACT: The first presidential phone call was spoken through 13 miles of wire from City Hotel in Providence to Rocky Point."
From 1847 through the end of the 19th century, "Rocky Point [was] Rhode Island’s working-class summer shoreline resort...In that era, before the midway rides that made Rocky Point famous for later generations of Rhode Islanders, the allure of Rocky Point was the land itself—over 120 acres of beach, meadows, wetlands, woods, and dramatic rocky elevations overlooking the entire upper Narragansett Bay." (Source: Rocky Point Foundation) It was a popular amusement park throughout most of the 20th century until it closed in 1995. Between 2008 and 2014, the land was purchased by the City of Warwick, and, with federal, state, and city efforts, the property now known as Rocky Hill State Park was revitalized and reopened to the public.