Wyman and Edith Jennings, had a mission to leave Montrose better than they found it. They did many great things for our city through the years, but to understand why they did all this you need to understand where they started:
April 15, 1939 – Wyman Jennings and James Langston bought the phone company that was located in Montrose. It was renamed Public Service Telephone Company (for information before 1939 see our Historical page). The business was moved to 146 East State Street. At that time the two men paid $280 for all the assets, lines, poles, telephones and switchboards.
1956 – Wyman Jennings built an office for the Public Telephone Company at 144 E. Hickory Street. It had a unique drive-in telephone window where customers could pull up and pay their phone bills. This building is now the home of the Montrose Historical and Telephone Pioneer Museum.
1972 – Century Telephone Enterprises of Louisiana bought out Wyman Jennings. Century Telephone Enterprises moved the equipment to the east end of the building and used the space for storage.
May 17, 1989 – Wyman Jennings approached Clarke Williams, whose family owned Century Telephone Enterprises to see about getting the building for the Montrose Historical Association. This building would allow Montrose Historical Association to expand their museum.
May 6, 1990 – With the help from General Motors Job Bank and local citizens remodeling started on the building. The Montrose Historical & Telephone Pioneer Museum opened a year later.
1991 – Wyman Jennings helped get the museum opened by donating his personal telephone collection.
1997 – Wyman Jennings passed away, his will created the Jennings Foundation to help benefit the Montrose area. One thing the Foundation does each year is award the museum funds to operate, that is why the museum to this day allows free admission for the public.
The Jennings family and Foundation have helped Montrose in many ways: they helped with the building of our library, funding local churches, scholarships, helped the depot committee and much more.
Edith and Wyman Jennings