Historic Places Day celebrates communication milestone ahead of 150th anniversary of world's first long-distance telephone call
- 10 hours ago
- 3 min read
Casandra Turnbull
Managing Editor
Visitors to downtown Paris stepped back in time Saturday as Historic Places Day celebrated one of the community's most significant claims to fame: the world's first successful long-distance telephone call.
Held along the Downtown Paris Promenade in conjunction with the Paris Street Market, the free event highlighted this year's national Historic Places Days theme, Communication Through Place and Time, while building excitement for the 150th anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell's historic call between Brantford and Paris.
Presented in partnership with the County of Brant, the Bell Homestead National Historic Site, the Paris Museum and Historical Society, and the Brant Historical Society, the event featured historical exhibits, hands-on activities, guided walking tours and interactive displays exploring the evolution of communication.
One of the busiest displays belonged to County of Brant summer student Eddie Gloade, who created an interactive "Wind Box" exhibit examining how communication evolved following Bell's groundbreaking invention.
The display, one of a series of educational memory kits themed around earth, fire, wind and water, incorporated newspapers, historic telephones, information about telephone operators and artifacts from the Paris Museum.
"We have the first phone call, but what does it look like after?" Gloade said, explaining the exhibit focused on the history of communication that followed the first long-distance call.
Gloade, who is studying Indigenous Studies at Trent University while working with the County of Brant's Economic Development and Tourism Department alongside Arts, Culture and Heritage staff, said visitors were eager to learn more about the area's history.
"People have been amazing. It's all interactive stuff and they are all interested in learning about this piece of history," said Gloade. "Usually, people will come by and tell their own story they have and put more context into what we've put out."
Those conversations have become one of the most rewarding aspects of presenting local history, Gloade added.
"History has so many different perspectives. I only know what's written, but people will come in and tell stories about their family being a part of it or what they remember from being a child."
Originally from Nova Scotia, Gloade moved to the area in 2019 and quickly developed an appreciation for Brant's rich heritage.
"I wasn't from a super historical town before so moving here there is so much heritage preserved very well and I threw myself into that."
That interest led Gloade to volunteer with the Paris Museum and Historical Society while still in high school, where they got to know curator Tina Lyon before joining the County as a summer student.
Just steps away, the Bell Homestead National Historic Site offered another hands-on experience, inviting visitors to arrange a collection of telephones in chronological order from the oldest model to the most modern.
Curator Robert Stanczyk said the game proved popular with both children and adults. The display also featured a replica of the same style of telephone used during the historic long-distance call.
"What we are really advertising today is a community event on Aug. 8 that celebrates the anniversary of the first long-distance phone call," said Stanczyk.
"It's a community event that will have live music, refreshments, crafts, and the tours will be free."
The celebration will be held at the Bell Homestead National Historic Site, 94 Tutela Heights Rd. in Brantford, ahead of the official 150th anniversary.
Jumping in on the Historic Places Day celebration, the Brant Historical Society showcased additional artifacts connected to the telephone's history while the Paris Museum and Historical Society led free guided walking tours highlighting the downtown's role in one of the world's most important communications milestones.
The event celebrated a breakthrough that forever changed how people connect across distance.
On Aug. 10, 1876, Bell successfully transmitted the world's first long-distance telephone call between Brantford and Paris using existing Dominion Telegraph Company wires spanning approximately 13 kilometres. The achievement came just weeks after Bell had already demonstrated telephone communication between Brantford and Mount Pleasant on Aug. 3, followed by the successful transmission of music and singing from the Brantford telegraph office to the Bell Homestead the following day.
Bell first conceived the principle behind the telephone while staying at his family's Brantford home in the summer of 1874, where he often reflected along the Grand River at a location he called his "dreaming place." There he envisioned that sound vibrations could be converted into electrical signals and reproduced elsewhere, an idea that would revolutionize communication around the world.
Comments