Arlington's First Telephone and the Saegmuller house
The first civilian telephone in Arlington was installed 1893 at the mansion home of George Saegmuller at 5115 Little Falls Road.
The origin of the telephone in Arlington came with the installation of a private telephone line between the office of the chief signal officer of the Army and Fort Myer in October 1877. This was just 18 months after Alexander Graham Bell had received the patent on his telephone.
The first civilian telephone in Arlington was installed 1893 at the mansion home of George Saegmuller at 5115 Little Falls Road. It was only connected to Saegmuller's nearby farm.
Originally, a Falls Church Telephone company was chartered toward the end of the 19th century and shortly afterward, it installed a switchboard in Rosslyn serving 50 lines. The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone company absorbed the Falls Church Telephone company in 1916. Telephone lines were gradually connected but telephone were few and far between until World War I. By 1918 there were 555 telephones in the county.
The Rosslyn switchboard office was discontinued when a new central office was established in Clarendon in 1920.
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