This historic homestead was the site of one of the most important scientific breakthroughs in history. On July 26th, 1874, Alexander Graham Bell sat in the dale here, in a spot he called his “dreaming place”, and pondered the quest for a “speaking telegraph”. As he stared down at the Grand River, inspiration struck: Bell grasped the principle on which his most famous invention, the Telephone, would work. On a subsequent visit to his parent here, he mounted the world’s first successful long distance telephone call.
For over a century, the Homestead has welcomed visitors from all parts of the world. As one of Canada’s oldest historic home museums, it has grown significantly in that time, with three restored historic buildings and an eclectic collection of original Bell family and telephone artifacts. Together they tell the story of how a young teacher of the deaf came to invent the telephone.
