Our Hometown
Warner | Telephone Museum
Clip | 6m 22sVideo has Closed Captions
Graham Gifford shares how Warner’s telephone museum came to life—surprising all.
Graham Gifford tells the story of how Aldrick Violette’s vision turned a collection of antique phones into a beloved local museum. With thousands of artifacts and 20 years of history, this one-of-a-kind spot surprises and delights all who find it.
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Our Hometown is a local public television program presented by NHPBS
Our Hometown
Warner | Telephone Museum
Clip | 6m 22sVideo has Closed Captions
Graham Gifford tells the story of how Aldrick Violette’s vision turned a collection of antique phones into a beloved local museum. With thousands of artifacts and 20 years of history, this one-of-a-kind spot surprises and delights all who find it.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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well, quite frankly, it actually began many, many years ago.
It was the brainchild of Aldrick Violette, and he was working in the telephone industry and had grand hopes of one day being able to collect a variety of these phones and share them with the community.
So with that in mind, he would sort of stash things away at his house, in his office, in his barn, and then ultimately the designs were made.
The building was built 2001 2005.
The museum actually opened and 500 people showed up that day.
And we have been here now.
Well, this October will be 20 years, It's a bit of a surprise for most people that either just happen upon us or find us online.
And of course, we we quite frankly love to see the expressions of people's faces because when they walk in, they expect one, two telephones, some spiderwebs, dusty.
And they walk into this absolutely breathtaking, very spotless building with, I don't know how many phones and artifacts we've lost count.
It's thousands, thousands of them.
So people have a great time when they're here.
Yeah.
And because we have so, so many different artifacts and we've been here for 20 years, we have things from just just one off artifacts.
You know, somebody's grandfather had it in their barn, and he they wanted to give it to us.
We have large collections, just single collections.
So it depends on what it is.
We recently got, Spider-Man telephone two, by the way, which is now on the novelty wall, which is a huge hit, Also, people say, well, do you think the visit would be about a half hour or so?
The average visit is about three hours.
People love it because it brings back so many memories and there's so many things to experience and touch.
We're not your typical museum.
There's lots of things that you can touch.
Although we do have Monets, so to speak.
But there's just a lot of activity and a lot of hustle and whatnot.
So.
So you don't get bored easily here, which is a big surprise for our first time visitors.
I am proud to say that after all this time and last year alone, we had 4000 visitors.
So we see a lot of people if we can get them up that last granite step and get them in that door, we got them, we got them.
You.
You can't help but fall in love with this place if for no other reason.
There is so, so much here.
so there's a lot to offer people.
I think they don't realize that when they walk in.
The name of the museum is a bit tricky.
Telephone museum sounds very limiting.
But there's so much more.
It's so much more.
I love this place.
So when when Dick arrived from Van Buren, Maine, he drove down from Van Buren, Maine, in 1935.
The reason for that, he wanted to help, establish the Civilian Conservation Corps.
So the story goes, from what I understand, and I did have the privilege of of talking and meeting with Dick for a number of, of years.
So he comes down through Warner, New Hampshire, and at the time, Warner was lined with elm trees.
It was Warner Village is beautiful now, but apparently it was simply breathtaking then.
So Dick comes through Warner falls instantly in love with the town, says, I'm going to move here.
This is a wonderful place.
Well, then, of course, the next thing that will happen he met a lovely young lady named Alice and of course fell in love with Alice.
So they did live here.
And he began in 1946 to work in the telephone industry, which was established here.
At that point.
He would then spend years in the industry, obviously an independent telephone company, which they had established.
That's why the museum is here.
As a matter of fact, the building next door was once upon a time part of the MCT Telecom, which was the independent that Dick actually worked for and then ultimately owned and then ultimately sold.
So that's why the museum is here in Little Warner, New Hampshire.
That room over there is called the Sound Wave Lab, and it has been on our wish list for years.
Once upon a time, we used to change and do special exhibits every year, which was fascinating.
We still do that on a smaller level, but we wanted hands on rooms.
People love to touch things.
Plus, if you're a visual learner like myself, like a lot of people that come in here, it makes it a little easier because there are some elements, particularly the technology, that can be tricky to comprehend.
And so what do you do?
Well, you design rooms that people can go into.
You can learn Morse code.
You can play with a guitar.
Why a guitar at a telephone museum?
Sound.
It's all about sound.
How it how we perceive it, how it behaves in the airwave.
So we have a tubulum.
If you're not familiar with the tubulum, the Blue Man group played a tubulum.
That too helps us understand and teach how hearing works, how the phone technology works.
So all of these little vignettes of of hands on, that's where the three hour visit comes in.
Because I don't care if you are seven or if you are 95.
And I have seen 95 year olds come in and whomp on a on a tubulum them, which is visually fabulous.
Everybody loves it.
They love to come in and play, so it works out perfectly.
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