About Us

The Jefferson Barracks Telephone Museum is housed in a beautifully restored 1896 building that is on the National Register of Historic Places. It is located in the 426-acre historic Jefferson Barracks Park which is a 15-minute drive south of downtown St. Louis. The self-guided, accessible museum has many hands-on, how-things-work displays. The displays were created to inspire an interest in engineering and history. Scouts can utilize the museum to meet one of their Inventing and Engineering merit badge requirements and Wolf Pack members can meet one of their Collecting and Hobbies requirements. In addition to the extensive collection of telephones manufactured from the 1900s through 2000s, the Jefferson Barracks Telephone Museum also contains: • A working Central Office Step Switch. • Operator switchboards. • Military telephones from WWI through the Gulf War. • Hundreds of pieces of telephone-related equipment and tools. • A telephone pole complete with climbing equipment. • Hundreds of pieces of telephone-related memorabilia from the 1880s through the 2000s. • A large variety of novelty telephones. • A statue of Alexander Graham Bell and replicas of his 1876 Liquid Transmitter and 1877 First Commercial Telephone. Enjoy nostalgia from the early years of the telephone. It’s a fun family adventure, an educational field trip for students and an enjoyable group outing.