Cemetery Payphone, R.I.P.

Cemetery Payphone, R.I.P.

It took years to reach its ultimate demise, but this payphone outside New Calvary Cemetery was finally hauled off.

Once owned by the now-defunct (and aptly named) Underdog Communications this public phone had lingered for years like a … well, like a tombstone. The above picture was taken in February, 2004. The last time I remember this phone working was in October, 2006.

I checked in on this payphone over the years, curious as to how long it would stand at attention, and how long before it was sacrificed.

Here it is again in October, 2006. At this time the phone accepted incoming calls (which is unusual) and seemed to work normally.

I don’t remember when the phone went dead, but like everything else around here it stayed dead.

The march of decay and deterioration commences in this shot from July, 2009. The sign advertising the phone had fallen and someone left the phone on the hook upside-down, perhaps in an attempt to signal the device’s uselessness. This phone had no pulse, offering no dial tone and no service.

By March of 2010 it seemed the end was nigh, and that this payphone would vanish into the memory hole of Queens Boulevard.

Even the old sign that had toppled was gone, and the payphone enclosure teetered on the brink of collapse. Perhaps the phone had been an innocent bystander in a vehicular accident, or perhaps it was assaulted by a frustrated citizen in search of a working payphone. You’ve heard of cow tipping? How about payphone tipping?

As if the nearness to the cemetery of this deceased payphone was not bleak enough, this phone was also at the end of a creepy-looking alley. Looking down this eerie passage one sees nothing but more tombstones at the end of the road, inviting psychics and séances to gather here to telephone the dead.

In May of 2010 the payphone hulk still teetered precariously on its feeble-looking stand. Not knowing if it was the last time I’d see this old friend I thought I’d memorialize it with a little artistic flair. I captured this reflection of myself, and of a passing stranger.

I last saw this payphone sometime during the summer of 2011. I did not get pictures of it that time.

When I passed by a couple of weeks ago I was sad but not surprised to find the old payphone was gone. Dead and maybe even buried. Rest in peace, old payphone.

All that’s left now of the old public phone is this metal strip and some holes in the ground.

The number of this old payphone was (718) 803-0365.

This was the closest payphone to a cemetery in New York. My knowledge of this seemingly random bit of trivia is incidental. In addition to my interest in payphones I spent a few years picking up work as a Forensic Genealogist — a fancy-sounding term for Cemetery Photographer. People, usually from far away, would pay me a few bucks to get photographs of their forebears’ and ancestors’ gravestones. The tombstones frequently contained family and genealogical information unavailable from other sources, and this information sometimes proved invaluable. I did cemetery photography on a semi-professional basis for 4 or 5 years.

Today, as far as I know, the closest payphone to a cemetery in New York City is at the 3-way intersection of Astoria Boulevard, 14th Street, and 28th Avenue. There are probably closer payphones in the Maspeth and Middle Village areas, but as for the historic St. George Cemetery of Astoria there is a Verizon payphone located about 100 feet away.

Earlier mentions of this cemetery payphone on The Payphone Project:

• Cemetery Payphone Revisited. July, 2009
• Cemetery Payphone. October, 2006

Other Payphones Located Near Cemeteries

• Araca cemetery – Sao Paulo, Brazil, at Waymarking.com
• Phone Booth and Cemetery in Wales, by Cat75
• Know of any others? Tell me!