Roseville Telephone Museum

This is a museum that encourages participation through tours and has a clear mission. Some of the equipment is used to demonstrate operation. They are open the first Saturday of the month 10-2.

One ringy dingy, two ringy dingy. If you can remember when a house had one phone physically attached to the wall, then the Roseville Telephone Museum will be a great trip down memory lane. If you have only ever used your "phone" to text and order cannabis, the Roseville Telephone will be a great reminder of why your parents invented the iPhone. This museum is in downtown Roseville (yes, there is a downtown Roseville) with limited parking.Technical stuff. Admission is free. Hours are 10-2 only the first Saturday of the month, so you need to plan ahead for this place. The museum only covers phones to about 1990 with few cordless and mobile technologies. That said, there is a large collection of old phones and switchboard technology which is worth the visit. They have a few displays of manual switchboards used up to the 1980's and some interesting switches from the exchanges.Some other highlights are the novelty phones released quickly after you were allowed to buy a phone. The value of the museum are the volunteers who can explain a lot of the history and provide demonstrations of the technology. These people worked for the phone company and are great!It is hard to explain how much it changed society when you could call someone on a telephone. I personally have seen rotary dials, long distance carriers, modems, and wireless develop in my lifetime. The Roseville Telephone Museum is a great place for friends and family to reach out and touch someone. You might even hear a pin drop!

Loved this place. Wish it was open to the public on more than one day per month. Brought my two-year-old there and there was a surprising amount of things for him to do and play with. But does since were wonderful. They told me everything I wanted to know anymore. And they were really wonderful with my young son. He's very interesting and I would highly recommend it.

You know when you're driving on the freeway and you see those little signs that say "blah, blah museum" or "historic site"? Like me, the answer is probably "yes" and like me, you probably rarely stop to check them out. For once, I stopped. I'm glad I did. What I couldn't have known from the little sign was that the telphone museum was "by appointment only". I thought "crap", what am I going to do now. I saw a doorbell and rang it. As it just so happens, one of the Surewest company volunteers was walking by. He asked if I wanted to take "a peak"...and an hour later we were out of there! The little museum is fascinating. If you are my age or older, you've watched the end of rotary, the beginning of dial tone, the birth and death of the fax machine, the end of the payphone, the beginning of fiber optics, and pretty soon the end of the landline. Here you go back further of course. The transition from the telegraph to the phone, the evolution of the operator to automatic switch board, how 411 worked, and just lots of cool things you don't think about. Our guide was enthusiastic and had a great sense of humor. He had worked at the company for something like 30 years, so he knew his stuff. Despite what I'm sure was a busy schedule, took time out of his day to help us. Thank you!That part of Roseville is actually pretty neat as well. The area still seems to have a connection to the trains and history. It is most definitely worth taking a quick stroll around.So, next time you are flying by on the freeway and see one of those little signs, take a look. You just might be surprised by what you find! P.S. I'd be super curious to know what teenagers thought of this museum. I'll bet even the exhibits closer to the present day might as well seem like it's from the 1700's to someone who has had cellphones all their lives!

We are quite disappointed upon arrival to the museum on the first Saturday of the month during the open hours of 10-2 as noted on the website as the museum was closed. We do not see any phone number to contact. It'd be great if there is a contact number so we could call to confirm that the museum is open.

Cute gem of a museum in the middle of suburbia. Much bigger than expected with multiple rooms. Plenty of highly knowledgeable docents around to answer questions and provide demonstrations. Learned so much from this place.

Let me start by saying this place is free and has A/C! I was able to schedule our tour one day in advance for about 15 people. Frank was our tour guide and was very knowledgeable and patient with the younger kids in the group. I'd always been curious how old switchboards worked and we got to see that first hand today. Great educational summer field trip for, I'd say, probably ages 7 and up. Lots of things have "no touching" signs so little guys might have a hard time with that... It takes 45 minutes to an hour to work your way through the museum. This is definitely a cool place to check out! We had a great time. Also, if you're bringing kids the Civic Center has a splash pad within walking distance. It's open 12-7 and is also free.

Wow pretty interesting! All the old switch boards are neat! Come check it out! Was in the area decided to stop in and check it out. Only open in the first Saturday of the month so we got lucky!

I LOVE this place! I've been several times over the years, but took my granddaughter last year at age 5 and she absolutely loved it! She was enamored with all the old phones and the curator was fun and a great source of information! This awesome Telephone Museum has the most extensive collection of telephones in the nation! It is housed in a cute old building at the end of downtown Vernon Street and encompasses 4,500 square feet. We made a morning of it...after this, we went over to the Carnegie Library Museum in Old Town, then off to Old Town Pizza for a yummy slice of pizza (which they offer at lunchtime, at least on the weekends.) If you haven't tried their pizzas, you don't know what you're missing! A great unique crust that I've never had anywhere else! My granddaughter is now 6 and we're going tomorrow again! The Telephone Museum is open the 1st Saturday of every month, and otherwise by appointment (unless it's changed.)