Businesses
The Illinois Bell Telephone Company Pioneer Museum and Historical Committee provides a chronology of telephone service in Crystal Lake. This was written in 1957 by the former Illinois Bell historian, R.L. Mahon. You may learn more about the history of The Illinois Bell Telephone Company by reading our Telephone History.
Phone books
- 1908 – According to the Nunda/Crystal Lake Herald, 216 local telephones were in operation. The June 4, 1908 Herald lists each of them.
- 1913 – View the original 1913 Crystal Lake Phone Book.
- 1927 – (New! Just Added!) View the 1927 Crystal Lake listings
- 1931 – View the 1931 Crystal Lake listings
- 1936 -View the 1936 January Telephone Book
- 1941 – Phone book includes listings from Crystal Lake, McHenry, Johnsburg, Pistakee & Woodstock.
- 1942 – View the 1942 Crystal Lake listings with advertisements.
- 1943 – View the 1943 Crystal Lake listings with advertisements.
*Note: to keep file size down, only Crystal Lake pages are included. Original book also includes listings for McHenry, Johnsburg, Pistakee & Woodstock.
- 1948 – View the 1948 Alphabetical listing
- 1956 – View the 1956 Alphabetical listing.
Includes Crystal Lake, Burton’s Bridge, Lakewood, and Ridgefield.
Crystal Lake’s new (1929) telephone office in the Cohn Commercial Building