Local museum filled with phones from the past Posted: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 12:00 am | Updated: 4:41 pm, Fri Apr 27, 2012. by Jenn Young.... SHINNSTON — At the beginning of Donald Bice’s career as an installer for Bell System, he spent many hours taking telephones of all shapes out of people’s homes and putting new ones in. A naturally curious man, passionate about his craft, he eventually began keeping the ones that otherwise would’ve been thrown away. What started as a modest collection of telephones in 1938 more than doubled in size by the time of his death last year. Today the Bice-Ferguson Museum, which Bice founded, is home to his 50-plus phone collection and other memorabilia that remind residents of he and his wife Lota’s legacy. “He didn’t throw anything away, which is great for a museum,” museum volunteer Maxine Weser said. “We have telephone pole climbers and a little repair area, where Mr. Bice would have worked, because he was always tinkering with phones. We’ve even got his old tools next to that. He just kept everything.” The first phone to greet visitors on the inside wall of the museum is a box phone, the bulk and size of which reflect its age. The phone, popular between 1894 and 1895, primarily was used for talking long distance and housed extra batteries in the base to power the conversation. The oldest phone in the museum’s collection is from 1878. It required the user to speak into and listen through the same receptacle. “A lot of people are more interested in the Bices’ furniture than they are the phonessometimes, but the phones that draw the most attention are the two from the Alderson Women’s prison, which was where Mr. Bice was relocated by the phone company,” Weser said. Both of the 300 Series candlestick phones feature a slim metal design, constructed in the 1940s, that reflects the evolution from earlier boxy versions. Bice went to work in 1938 in the Shinnston office, but eventually was sent to Alderson to establish a Bell Systems telephone office there. He retired in 1967 and by then had stored his entire phone collection in his home. “I’m surprised there aren’t more kids interested in this, because nowadays they have these phones you can get pictures on, play games on — and they don’t realize what all happened for us to get to that point,” Weser said. The museum has a phone from every era and every major phone company from the 19th and 20th centuries. There’s even an old PBX switchboard donated by the Telephone Pioneers, an organization of retired telephone employees. Since opening in May of this year, the museum also has had a lot of support from local residents like Judy Asel. She stopped in Tuesday to buy a memorial museum bracelet and telephone charm. “This is really only the second time I’ve been in here, but I think it’s lovely,” Asel said. “It’s so beautiful and clean.” Asel is also looking forward to the museum’s upcoming Buck Shaffer Day on Oct. 28. The event is one of many programs officials have been offering at the museum to pique local interest. To date they’ve had an antique doll show, antique appraisal, a 1944 history day and a history of Shinnston bands event. Shaffer, a Shinnston native, is an internationally recognized band director, who has led many of his groups to the Rose Bowl parade and performed all over the country. As part of the museum’s program he will be explaining the significance of the artifacts he’s recently donated to the museum, including Shinnston High School’s first band uniform and two 125-year-old phonographs. What helps keep the museum afloat is the trust Bice left to ensure it stays open, along with the merchandise that’s sold there. The latter includes T-shirts, bags and Lena Poling’s “History of the City of Shinnston,” Weser said. The museum is run entirely by volunteers, including Bice’s nephew Bobby Bice. His favorite piece in the museum is an oak stand with two drawers on top, which once belonged to Bice’s great-grandparents. “There is a challenge in just keeping it staffed. It is difficult, but we’ve been very fortunate in that the Mr. Bice bought the building and paid for all remodeling when he was still alive,” Weser said. Lota, who had no children, also left behind a sizable doll collection, used books and a Haviland China set in addition to the museum’s antique furniture, much of which belonged to her parents and grandparents. Shinnston City Manager Debbie Herndon describes the museum, which now sits where First National Bank did years ago, as an asset to the community. “This is a great use for an old building, a building that is a historical building, for that matter, and we are very pleased to have something that nice downtown,” she said. “This will be a destination for people to come to and discover what Shinnston is all about.”
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 13:37:45 +0000
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