Charles Williams Jr. House

Somerville, United States

Exterior only

Visible from the street; the inside is private.

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Built in 1858, this Italianate house in Somerville, Massachusetts belonged to Charles Williams Jr., a manufacturer of electrical telegraph instruments whose Boston shop became a pivotal site in telephone history. Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson conducted their groundbreaking telephone experiments there, first detecting indistinct transmitted sounds on June 2, 1875. In 1877, Williams' residence became the location of the world's first permanent residential telephone service, connecting his home to his shop on Court Street in Boston. Williams himself held telephone numbers 1 and 2 of the Bell Telephone Company, marking his central role in early telecommunications.