A curious bit of signage hovers over this semi-circular staircase at Rockefeller Center. The full wraparound text reads: CONCOURSE TO ALL BUILDINGS     SUBWAY     SHOPS     RESTAURANTS     BARBER SHOP     BEAUTY PARLOR     COMMUNICATIONS     POST OFFICE. A visitor noticing the word “COMMUNICATIONS” might assume it refers to Rockefeller Center’s free Wi-Fi access. Or, someone aware of their surroundings might possibly think it refers to the fact that a number of communications companies do business in these buildings. Its meaning may seem open to interpretation, but what does “COMMUNICATIONS” really mean?

I believe this decades-old bit of signage refers to abundant quantities of public telephones and phone booths that once inhabited the Concourse at Rockefeller Center. “COMMUNICATIONS” also probably references the Western Union Telegram Office that used to be down here. I do not know when Rockefeller Center’s Telegram office closed but Western Union officially ceased offering telegram service in 2006. Most of the Concourse-level payphones disappeared by early 2011.

Only a few payphones are available in the Rockefeller Center Concourse today. Excluding payphones located in subway stations the number of payphones in Rockefeller Center’s underground Concourse appears to be three. Of those three phones only two are in service. The payphones hang off a white tile wall in this rather depressing passageway under the GE Building:

Numbers shown for the two working phones are (212) 246-8697 and (212) 246-8729.

The death of a payphone sometimes reveals what I interpret as a ghostly, anthropomorphic visage of a screaming face. Such a face appeared here after a payphone removal:

Not so long ago Rockefeller Center housed dozens of payphones and old-style phone booths. Like so many things in life I wish I had taken more pictures. Here are a few.

Going upstairs from the Concourse we find the only surviving evidence of Rockefeller Center’s former public telephone abundance. This row of eight useless Verizon payphones and text telephones is in the McGraw Hill Building. These phones have been out of service for years, a telephonic wasteland lingering in neglect like a cynical museum piece. This photo is from December, 2011, but this useless wall of phones remained when I passed by a couple of months ago.

The numbers shown on these payphones are: (212) 764-6918, (212) 764-6172, (212) 764-6476, (212) 764-6653, (212) 764-6680, (212) 764-6830, (212) 764-6738, and (212) 764-5540. UPDATE: Those were the numbers for these payphones. This set of phones was removed in early 2014.

Until early 2009 you could step in to one of about a dozen old-style metal phone booths with closing doors. These phone booths were in the basement of the UBS Building:

This Payphone Action Shot from January, 1999, shows that yes, indeed, people used to use these payphones.

These photos from September, 2010, show eight Verizon payphones near the Time Inc. Ditto Center. These payphones disappeared in early 2011:

As this Payphone Action from January, 1999, shows, these payphones (since redesigned) were once quite busy.

Another set of maybe a dozen payphones under the Fox News building disappeared in early 2011. I have photos of those but I cannot seem to find them.

I don’t remember their exact locations but this photo from May, 2000, shows two of three Bell Atlantic payphone booths that once existed somewhere in the Rockefeller Center underground. The payphone numbers: (212) 664-9470, (212) 664-9471, and (212) 664-9473.

This is the only photo I have from the row of phone booths that used to be near the basement entrance to Studio 1A, where the “Today” show is broadcast. Its number was (212) 664-9403.