A Subway Payphone, 9½ Years Later

This before-and-after sequence spans 9½ years, and shows a payphone at the 36th Avenue/Washington Avenue subway station in Astoria.

The first picture is from June, 2000.

The second picture from January, 2010, shows a remarkably similar scene. The payphone itself seems to be the same. The slanted surface under the phone set (intended for note-taking, I assume) is perhaps slanted just slightly further, and the covered wire which goes up into the ceiling appears to be at about the same angle as in 2000.

This before-and-after sequence of payphone pictures is somewhat unusual on account of the fact that the payphone has survived.

The number for this phone is (718) 278-8327.

One change is interesting to me. In 2000 the sign on the right said that the Ditmars-bound trains was going to “Astoria,” as if 36th Avenue itself was not yet Astoria. In changing this sign it seems that the MTA now considers 36th Avenue to be part of Astoria. This nuance likely interest only residents, for whom the distinction between Astoria and Long Island City is a point of minor disagreement — one not necessarily resolved by zip code boundaries or topographical distinctions. Historically the whole of Western Queens was called Long Island City, and Long Island City comprised several neighborhoods such as Ravenswood, Steinway, and Dutch Kills among others.

Long Island City is commonly referred to as L.I.C., and I was chagrined to learn that I was not the first to propose that Astoria and L.I.C. should be combined to form ASLIC. Needless to say, the ASLIC name never caught on.