Announcement that La Grande was getting a state college spurred phone call flood

Rotary candlestick phones, like this one, were popular in the 1920s. DICK MASON/The Observer

And one of the most memorable in the history of the old Home Independent Telephone Company.

Dec. 19, 1926, was the day the state board of normal school regents voted 5-4 to place a state college in La Grande. Area residents were anxious to spread the news, perhaps more eager than operators at the Home Independent Telephone Company would have liked.

“About 15 minutes after the news was first reported the operating switchboard, already carrying its usual heavy load of pre-Christmas conversations, suddenly burst forth in glory like a well lighted Christmas tree bearing the news of La Grande’s best gift,’’ a story in the Dec. 24, 1926, Observer stated.

Calls were coming in at such a rate that “the switchboard was a blaze of illumination.’’

Operators worked frantically but still the board shone. Employees from other departments had to be called in to assist. The switchboard received more calls in those two hours than it normally did in a day.

It is not known how many calls came in but thousands were received in that two-hour period. La Grande’s switchboard normally handled about 1,700 calls an hour at that time.

Eastern opened 2 1/2 years after the state board of normal school regents voted to place it in La Grande. It was first known as Eastern Oregon Normal School when it opened in June 1929.