Hmmm, depending on how quickly wire-technology advanced, it might be that putting early versions up cheaply was the right decision compared to burying cables that might become obsolete a bit sooner than you want to dig them up again.

If you're near Seattle, consider a visit to the Connections Museum [0], where you can walk among working banks of switches (clicking from various simulated internal calls) from various eras, plus samples of old cabling and handsets, etc.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connections_Museum_Seattle