History Of The
Hamilton Wenham Communications Center
Until dial tone came to Hamilton and Wenham in 1960, telephone operators handled all emergency calls. The telephone office was located on Railroad Avenue at the current site of Hamilton Dentistry. Once a resident called for assistance, the operator would call an officer at home or if the call was for Hamilton Police, she would ring a buzzer which sounded in the square. There was also a light that hung over the intersection of Bay Road and Railroad Avenue, which she could activate. The officer would call by phone or walk to the telephone office to get the information. The City of Beverly allowed the use of their police frequency and they could
dispatch via radio, calling “car 45”.
Knowing the telephone office would be closing, town officials were faced with the problem of who would answer the calls. Bob Porter, a Wenham resident and New England Telephone executive, became an integral part of the solution. He gave technical advice when the two towns decided to set up an emergency communications center staffed by civilians. They were years ahead of their time in this decision. The first people hired were the telephone operators and space was provided in the second floor of the newly built Hamilton Police and Fire station. The small room was expanded once and in 1978, the Emergency Center moved down a half level to the kitchen. This gave more room for the ever expanding amount of equipment.
In 1994, Hamilton and Wenham joined the Boston Area Police Emergency Radio Network (BAPERN). There had been a multi-town incident where our police could not communicate with other departments. This lack of interoperability was a safety issue not only for the responding police units but also for the public. As a result, Hamilton Police Chief Walter Cullen and Wenham Police Chief Peter Carnes requested funding to purchase a system which would add the Bapern frequencies. During this important update, new consoles and radios were purchased for ECO. At the same time, State 9-1-1 installed Enhanced 9-1-1 which gave the location of the call.
In 2007, we moved in to the Public Safety Building. All of our existing equipment was moved into the new room. State 9-1-1 did another upgrade adding mapping, cell phone information and several other features.
A State 9-1-1 grant in 2008-2009 let us replace the radios that were purchased in 1994. A second grant in 2009-2010 will allow us to finish replacing the old antennas and we will have all state of the art equipment.
A good foundation for today’s Emergency Center was set by the work of the Chief Dispatchers of the past, Arlene Rollins (1960-1962), Jean Austin (1963-1967) and Regina Manthorn (1968-1984).
Having proudly served the communities of Hamilton and Wenham for 50 years, we look forward to the next 50.
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