Here is a midtown Manhattan public telephone location that has survived the payphone meltdown of the last 15 years. It is located on 6th Avenue near 55th Street.
The first picture was taken sometime around 1999, and shows this phone with Bell Atlantic branding. Bell Atlantic swallowed up GTE in June, 2000, and the combined company became Verizon. At that time the Bell Atlantic branding was supposed to be removed from all public phones, though to this day vestiges of the old branding remain on any number of public phones -- this composite photo, for instance, shows a hybrid Verizon/Bell Atlantic branded phone in Queens which I spotted last year.
No obvious traces of a Bell Atlantic insignia remain visible on this phone, though the handset bears residue of an adhesive sticker which might have had Bell Atlantic branding.
The next two pictures are from August, 2009, and show that elements the telephone set itself have been swapped out but the location remains. I assume the number has also stayed the same during this time, though I have no record of (212) 245-9500 in any of my payphone databases. (What a desirable phone number, by the way. It should be owned by a bank!)
The keypad has changed from a typical push-button with square keys to this more minimal nipple-style keypad.
The Astro Restaurant seen behind and to the left of the payphone is still in business, while the "Traditional Indian Cuisine" location (for rent at the time) is now taken by a place called Venus. The unnamed store at the far right is now called 55th Digital.
I wonder what the "7/22" signifies. July 22? There is a "7/22" written in Sharpie at the top right of this enclosure:
