This story was written in response to a reader-submitted question through Open Source, a platform where readers can ask Ashland Source’s newsroom to investigate a question.
ASHLAND — The original late 19th century building used by Star Telephone Company, the first phone company in Ashland, lives on as office space for law offices and a real estate company.
Meanwhile, the company’s second Ashland office just around the corner sits empty.
The building at 128 Church Street served as the headquarters for the growing Star Telephone Company from around 1899 to the 1950s, according to the Ashland County Historical Society.
During that time, phones began to spread in Ashland. In 1905 there were around 1,100 phones in and around the city. By 1929, that number would almost quadruple to 3,894.
The Star Telephone Company moved out in the 1950s, and in August 2020 Castle Real Estate Title, LLC. bought the historical building to use it for offices, administrator Nancy Godfrey said.
“We love it,” she said.
Before Castle Real Estate the building was owned by Thomas Budd, who renovated the ground floor around 10 years ago, she added.
Just around the corner from Star Telephone’s original office is their second location at 118 West Main Street, which they moved to after a merger with the Northern Telephone Company. The combined companies would later become part of the now-defunct General Telephone Company of Ohio, which is now Verizon.
The second building’s windows are cracked, the wallpaper is peeling, and the concrete step leading to the entrance is chipped and broken.
On its glass doors is the logo for Frontier Communications, another phone and internet company that bought a slew of former General Telephone properties from Verizon.
The company maintains telecom infrastructure in the basement of its old location, and is looking to sell the building, a spokesperson for Frontier said.
Frontier recently closed down its retail locations after declaring bankruptcy in 2020, instead allowing employees and technicians to work remotely. Now the company works to install fiber internet and 5G technologies in the county.
Meanwhile its former office, the home of multiple phone companies over the years, sits quiet.
