In 1901, plans were being laid to construct a telephone system to connect Tampa and the rest of the world by Peninsular Telephone founder William G. Brorein. It initially operated 100 phone lines within the city. It was big news when a long-distance line to Plant City was completed in December of 1901, and bigger news once they completed a line to Braidentown (now Bradenton) in March of 1902. To complete calls to those locations, people called the phone company offices on Zack Street and would be connected. Much of the function of telephone companies for the first half of the 20th century was having operators working their switchboards.

Peninsular thrived as residents sought phone services for their homes, and businesses wanted to connect with them. By 1926, the company added the 12-story structure next to its original 4-story 1914 building. During construction, the company got hundreds of phone calls because the steel structure started to lean heavily, and citizens thought it might fall. Construction was completed in 1927. By 1957, demand was so high that it outpaced available capital for the company, and they merged with General Telephone of Corporation of Florida. The new conglomerate built the new windowless structure at 601 Morgan Street. That company became GTE, merged with Bell Atlantic in 2000, and was renamed Verizon Communications. In 2015, Verizon sold many properties to Frontier Communication, including those in Florida. Frontiers' name now appears on the building.

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