Payphones Past

Then and Now

Public Phones are, or Rather *Were*, Found in the Likeliest Places!

Just some images I scanned from an old Bell Telephone ad found in a desk drawer, probably an eBay purchase…

5 years ago

Continuing my Roundup of Boston Payphones from 2014

These two back-to-back payphones, at 617-338-6433 and 617-338-6548, appear to remain active on Summer Street, near Macy's, in Boston, 5½ years…

5 years ago

(813) 873-9418: A Payphone of Legend

Memories of the first payphone to which I remember ever having regular access. Oh, how I worked this phone at…

5 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

Remembering How Obsessively I Used to Write Down Payphone Numbers

These scraps of paper from 1999 or 2000 appeared from my boxloads of papryal ephemera today, reminding me how obsessively…

7 years ago

wfaa.com | REWIND: Irving payphone users lament 1970s rate hikes

An amusing look back at when the cost of a payphone call increased from 10¢ to 25¢, from WFAA in…

7 years ago

He’s Still Listening … Tim Perdue

Echoes of "This Phone is Tapped" inform this pair of then-and-now photos from Flickr photographer Tim Perdue.

7 years ago

New Year, Old Payphones

When I first heard about 80s.nyc, a Streetview for NYC in the 1980s, I thought it sounded like inspiration for…

8 years ago

Manhattan’s Last Outdoor Phone Booths: What’s The Deal?

One of the more oddball moves by the CityBridge consortium was its replacement of Manhattan's classic American Airlight style phone…

8 years ago

Temple City Motel Phone Booth. Photo by Thomas Hawk.

The Temple City Motel in Salt Lake City once had a classic Airlight style phone booth out front. Today it…

8 years ago