Payphones Past

Payphone News

Penn Station Payphones Disappearing

Development work at Penn Station has forced removal of about a ½ dozen working payphones. One of these phones was…

6 years ago

A Response to the “WE NEED MORE PAYPHONES” Vandal

The "WE NEED MORE PAY PHONES" vandal is not alone in feeling the absence of traditional public telephones. Once in…

6 years ago

Payphone To God…?

There is a "Payphone To God" at a bar in Chicago. Also, notes on payphone-centric projects such as Futel, Mind…

6 years ago

Payphones on the Water? Also, the Nicasio Reservoir Payphone Mystery Solved.

A photo of an unusually-located payphone on a Florida lake inspired me to verify its authenticity, and to follow up…

6 years ago

Finally, There is a Crisis Counseling Phone on the RFK Bridge.

My thanks to THE CITY, and Gabriel Sandoval, for amplifying my long-running concerns about the lack of a suicide counselling…

6 years ago

Found a Rotary-Dial Payphone From When All of NYC Was Still (212)

I got over my fear of being ridiculed for asking about such things. I staked out an old rotary dial…

6 years ago

The Apology Line Revisited

Inspired by new contacts with an interest in the subject, I wrote down some reflections on my involvement with the…

6 years ago

USPS Blue Mailboxes: The Next Vanishment

It's not that mailboxes are vanishing. Instead we are losing distinct stamps of age that showed how some humble little…

6 years ago

Payphones vs. LinkNYC: The N11s Compared.

Access to 211, a community outreach service provided by the United Way, has been hijacked on a significant quantity of…

6 years ago

Phone Booth Hunting in Old School Yearbooks

Phone booth hunting in publicly posted college and high school yearbooks turned up some interesting stuff. Until the mid-2000s, if…

6 years ago