The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company was a subsidiary of AT&T that provided communications services to most of the US West. It was founded in San Francisco in 1906. The first AT&T subsidiary in Seattle had been the Sunset Telephone and Telegraph Company, which began operating in 1883. Sunset quickly expanded and provided service throughout Washington, but AT&T decided to discontinue the Sunset name. In 1917, Sunset merged with Pacific Telephone and Telegraph. Pacific continued to expand and absorb its competitors. In 1920, the company had a new building constructed at 3rd Ave and Seneca St. for its regional headquarters.

AT&T split off telecommunications services in Washington, Oregon, and northern Idaho in 1961. The new company was called the Pacific Northwest Bell Telephone Company and its first major task was to construct a telephone system that was robust and advanced enough to serve the Century 21 Exposition in Seattle less than a year later. During the breakup of the Bell System in 1984, Pacific Northwest Bell merged with two other former AT&T subsidiaries and was renamed US West.

This image shows employees of the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company posing for a group photograph in their Seattle headquarters building.

Caption on photo: The Pacific Telegraph and Telephone Company / Seattle & N.W. Dist. & Div. Plant Eng. Forces / May 9, 1949
Identifications on accompanying slip: Top Row Down / Left to right / 1201 E. Union / 1) Paul Simonton, Bill Schermer, Rod Harvey, Truman Merritt, Cliff Harris, Rod Nolte, John Moseley, Fred Karr, Bob McEwen, Bob Yerkan, N. Sage, Bob Kollmar, A. Larson, A. Thompson, Fred Massie, R. Kruse, Jack Sperry, R. Anderson. 2) C.C. Hastie, R. Whitcomb, J. Mittendorf, W. Presch, C. Page, A. Free, Pat Ellis, L. Cornell, Betty Melker, M. Hood, Joe Keith, H. Stimmel, G. Durkee, L.B. Marfield, R. Fredlund, Paul Yejoff 3) F. Burgstahler, Rosemary Berg, Dot Nolte, C. Leffler, Barb. Anderson, C. Rasmussen, Vi. Watson, A. Nederlee, Evelyn Singer, E. Paradis, Donna Gray, M.E. Brown, Geanne Hutchins, J. Broulette, Jane Huntington 4) J. McCoy, J. Foley, J. Mathers, Dick Gilbert, Bert Cassels, Gerry Bert, Luke Dennie, George Knight, Al. Whitke, Charlie Moon, Porter Lewis, W.W. Killinger, John Moffat

Caption information source: “ American Telephone and Telegraph Company (A, T and T), Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company, Office Building #2,” http://pcad.lib.washington.edu/building/8827/, retrieved 4/9/2021.