The 8 pages below constitute the 1929 telephone directory for Sugar Land. Margaret Albritton Hill let me scan her copy before she moved to Washington several years ago.
William T. Eldridge had the first telephone in Sugar Land, or more accurately the first two. He had a phone installed at his home at the front entrance to the refinery. (Up to the late 20s his home was the Ellis House that sat at the front entrance to the refinery. Most of us remember this house which sat between the Char House and Volunteer Fire Department Building.) The other phone was installed in the refinery. Eldridge wanted the ability to contact the plant manager's office at any time. I'm not exactly sure when he had these first telephones installed. It was probably well before the 20s. (Now that I've thought about it for a couple of days, the phones may have been installed in the early 20s - when Imperial began running a second shift.)
I noticed my grandparents didn't have a phone, but I didn't really think they did. An ancient family story recounts how my grandfather had to run from Rat Row (Imperial Boulevard) to The Hill to get the doctor when my father was born in the early hours of April 16, 1925.
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