Opened in 1894, the Chinese Telephone Exchange in San Francisco, Chinatown played a huge role in increasing accessibility to Chinatown workers and employing Chinese Americans. Before the Chinese Telephone Exchange was opened, business people seeking for Chinese laborers had to run up the hill from San Francisco’s financial district in order to ask for Chinese workers. After the invention of the telephone, merchants put the first telephone in the neighborhood so they can easily call people without running up the hill. While initially operated by men, after 1906, the telephone exchange staff were mostly women, employing over 3,000 women at its peak. The telephone exchange served as a place of community in Chinatown, particularly during a time when women had limited employment opportunities. In 1949, phone companies started using rotary dials so the telephone exchange became obsolete, resulting in the closing of the Chinese Telephone Exchange.