Next Frontier For Finding Dead Payphones: Laundromats.

Well, despite the headline, I’ve known about laundromats as places to find dead, abandoned payphones for a long time. Many laundromats around town used their old payphones as house phone, so coins deposited were spit back out and local calls were free. But lately I’ve been entering into some of the laundromats I’ve walked past countless times without giving the places a second thought. I’ve been surprised to find there had been payphones lurking within arm’s reach all these years.

This phone is at the Turbo Laundry Center, 62-01C Northern Boulevard in Long Island City, Queens. It is an abandoned phone once owned by the defunct Underdog Communications. I might have tried for more photos of this phone-in-the-woods but I was getting suspicious looks from the boss of the place.

 

This is an abandoned payphone left for dead that the 55 Laundromat at 55th Street and Roosevelt Avenue in Woodside, Queens.

 

Here are two payphones at the New AD Laundromat in East Elmhurst, Queens, with details.