May 1902 Los Angeles County Telephone Directory [cover title]

Los Angeles, 1902. Good plus.. viii,152pp. Original printed wrappers, stapled. Remnants of paper spine covering. Light wear to wraps, heavier at corners, spine perishing, but text block solid. Light dust soiling and scattered creasing internally. Scarce, early 20th-century edition of the telephone directory for Los Angeles County, issued by the Pacific States and Sunset Telephone & Telegraph Companies in May 1902. At this time, the companies, which grew out of the Los Angeles Telephone Company founded in 1881, provided manual operator service to approximately 10,000 phones. This number of phones was only slightly less than the total population of Los Angeles in 1880, 11,000 people, thereby mirroring the dramatic growth of the city during that period. Despite this increase, service beyond the city limits was still very spotty, as evidenced by the entries for other town in the county. With an extensive classified business directory at the rear, and several local advertisements scattered throughout. OCLC notes a small handful of institutions with examples of other issues of this directory, but seemingly none of the May 1902 version.