In 1897, Northwestern Bell Telephone Company acquired right of way across the Anna Mason land coming into Maple Plain and located its first phone at Conover's store.
On May 11th, 1904, Watertown Telephone Company was established, thus bringing service to rural Maple Plain in 1905. Service for the whole town of Maple Plain came in 1911 with 103 customers and hasgrown to 1333 in 1968. Telephone operators were paid $12.00 to $25.00 per month. Telephone poles cost 65c to 85c each in comparison to $18 to $25 now in 1968. The telephone office for Maple Plain was first in the J. C. Johnson grocery store at Lyndale, then to the Charles Cox. Hotel, later to the Maple Plain State Bank and finally in August, 1910 to the present site south of the tracks on County Road 19. In 1954 Maple Plain received its first dial system. The present building with more modern automatic equipment was built in 1964 and 2 years later conversion to extended area service to the Metro area was made available.
