Jim Barr Telephone Museum / Boncranna B&B

168 Maple Avenue, Hobart, NY • 607-538-1129

Folks collect some really odd things. Some end up acquiring items that we sometimes take for granted, such as Jim Barr, of Hobart, New York.

Many years ago, Jim started picking up different phones. As time went on his kids started giving him phones as gifts and the menagerie grew and grew. Eventually Jim had to come to grips with the fact that he was a serious collector of civilian communication apparatus, commonly called the telephone and his collection was quickly becoming one of the best in the United States.

About this time Jim began to look in earnest for some of the rarer telephones and with urging from his wife Marcy - basically to get all the phones out of their lovely Boncranna Bed & Breakfast - he created the Jim Barr Telephone Museum in a small barn adjacent to the B & B.

I had heard about this amazing collection and in true Mysterious America fashion I went in search of this museum.

The ride up into the Catskills of New York was delightful, and made even more so by the fact I had 'borrowed' publisher Rathjen's BMW R1150GS.

If you want to really explore the mysterious you need a bike that matches the task. Just the looks alone you get at stoplights from a public, so used to ordinary motorcycles, is fun in itself.

You'll find the Jim Barr museum just off Route 10, on Maple Street in Hobart, an excellent town that has more bookstores on one block than any other town to which I have travelled, but that is another story.

I was greeted in the driveway by Jim and Marcy who were eager to show me Jim's collection of phones and an excellent one it is! Ranging somewhere around 200+ phones you can truly get an idea of the evolution of the telephone, something we all take for granted.

From the very earliest incarnations to the present you will see how they came along - multi-box

units, then the extended mouthpiece, the crank units - Jim has many of them set up in a progression of years, styles and adaptation and improvements. On one table he has a Tel-Com 150A. What the heck is a Tel-Com 150A, you ask? Why simply the very first portable phone!

Take a look at that cell phone in your pocket - the Tel-Com 150A was carried in a brief case and weighed about 15 pounds!

Along with an excellent collection of local phone company memorabilia from around the nation, including a wonderful collection of posters and photographs from 100 years back, Jim also has a most impressive queue of "Character Phones."

I particularly enjoyed these - Beetle Baily, Spider-Man, The Hulk, Scooby-Doo, Bozo the Clown, Kermit the frog, the Starship Enterprise and a phone for Michael Jordan - built like a basketball which, when rung, opens up and a stadium rises up and the crowd does the wave.

Some really creative people have way too much time. We can build a Michael Jordan phone like this but we can't cure the common cold. What's up with this world?

The museum has been opened since 2002 and its guest book has a very interesting first entry with a signature from one Homer Benedict, who was a local legend as he was still driving the day he died at some 106 years old.

Now that is amazing!

If you would like to take a peek at this tiny bit of Mysterious America then you had best give a call first as the sign says "By appointment or chance."

And, while there, consider staying the night at Jim and Marcy's wonderful Boncranna B & B. They have three beautiful rooms, all individually appointed, and the entire home has a very comfortable and welcoming atmosphere. If you are a musician you'll love this place as the big living room has a drum set, keyboard and guitar - better not let Rathjen here or we're all doomed!

One other thing - Jim and Marcy are one of us - just take a look at the Gold Wing Trike in the drive.

If you are in search of something a bit odd and unusual then follow along as we bring you to Hobart, New York and the Jim Barr Telephone Museum - But, don't forget to use your own phone and call for an appointment first.

O'Life out!