Bell Atlantic Signage

Earlier this year I spotted an old, bullethole-ridden New York Telephone /American Telephone and Telegraph sign outside a convenience store in Queens. With no easy way to determine its age it is fair to guess that that Bell System sign has hovered over that sidewalk for over 70 years.

A public phone, it is assumed, once stood nearby, though no trace of it exists today, not even the tell-tale metal spikes in the sidewalk which typically signal where a payphone once stood (see Payphone News’ Payphones Then and Now series).

This weekend The Payphone Project spotted a less elderly sign, lurking high over the garage door of an auto body shop, bearing vestiges of the more recently retired Bell Atlantic logo.

Though not as rare as the above-mentioned Bell System sign I imagine this sign in 100 years, still there, still fooling citizens into thinking a payphone is at hand when no such thing exists.

Placed out of the reach of routine maintenance concerns I think this sign could survive for generations, lingering in state for as many decades as that Bell System sign, and maybe taking a few bullets along the way from frustrated, gun-toting payphone-seekers fooled by this meaningless piece of signage.

Old signs have a stubborn way of surviving, even in urban areas of seemingly rapid change. Not far from this phantom Bell Atlantic sign there used to be a service station called “House of the Driver” (what a great name!) which was a common pit stop for taxis and liveries. Hanging over the gas pumps at House of the Driver was an old, weathered sign which read We Honor Master Charge. The Master Charge brand was retired in 1979, meaning that sign had probably been in place for over 30 years. One imagines the passing decades in which occasional wayward customers attempt to pay for gas with a long-expired MasterCharge card, only to draw hackles from the employees at House of the Driver.

Old payphone signs like this one litter the air above us, promising access to a telephone when no such resource exists.