Built in 1910, this century plus old brick building will be found in First Avenue, one block above Columbia Avenue, and a hundred feet or so east of the entrance to Pioneer Park on Spokane Avenue. Though remembered as the Telephone Building, it has actually hosted the Seniors of Rossland for much more than half of its life, having been taken over by them in 1958. Now a
Rossland Heritage Building, it continues to serve the community in the capacity it has for 56 years.
B. C. Telephone Building
(Senior Citizens’ Center)
A beautiful brick building built as early as 1900 and purchased by the B.C. Telephone Company in 1910 to house the telephone exchange for Rossland. All telephone calls went through an operator so the operator could volunteer information as to where the called party might be reached if they weren’t near their phone. B. C. Tel vacated the building when a new automated dial exchange was installed on Columbia Avenue. In 1958 the building became the Seniors’ Center and has served that role to the present time.
Unfortunately, the facade of the front of the building has been covered with stucco as a way to deal with the decaying brick underneath.
From the Heritage Plaque