Try your local library, they may have phone books from back when. If they do the yellow pages might yield some great period art work also. http://ourwebhome.com/TENP/TENproject.html
Yes. Local exchanges. I want to find a 50's era correct number for Minn. area. I think they started with letters for the area like MN-5555 or something.
When I was a kid, my phone # was.....TRiangle7-9536......which later became 877-9536 For local in-town calls, you didn't even have to dial the 877
Yeah. I used to be Lytell 6749. Then Diamond something. Good old days. "Prices slightly higher west of the rockies" Used to hate that.
This post made me think about a place we'd go in 1959,called Frogcity just about 20 miles west of Miami on Tamamie Trial,the photo # there was Frogcity 5,yes that was all there was just #5.
And you did not directly dial other areas, so something like TR7 could have been in use multiple places. You'll find that most of the old local exchanges still exist disguised under the equivalent numerical form, but that other exchanges have been added more recently without any alphabetical history. Big cities obviously had many exchanges even way back, small towns maybe single ones. Small towns in Mississippi had no DIALS well into the fifties...you picked up the phone and waited for the operator, who would work with either a name or the (4-digit?) number.
I saw a really old Tucson phone book years ago, I should have tried to snag it....there were lots of very low numbers, mostly double digit. Later they went to the 2 letter 5 number thing, where the first two letters are the exchange name, such as MA for Main, and there are still a lot of 62x-**** numbers because of that.
I grew up in Bloomington, MN. When we first moved there in 1946, there was still a live "Central" operator, and our number was 537. About 1950, a dial system was installed, and our number became SO[uth]-9204. As the population grew and system expanded, the number became SO-1-9204. Around the late 50's, as best I remember, the SO[uth] exchange was eliminated, and replaced with TU[xedo]. When my parents moved away in 1976, their number was TU-8-9204. Hope this helps.
mine was HE3-0714 on a ten party line ..ring was one short one long..had to wait forever if some one was on the line...and no one could call in till they hung up
Anybody know if they added the 3rd exchange digit uniformly across the country? I had memorized my 6 digit number as a kid but I can't remember what year they added the 3rd digit. It was a big deal at the time. I just don't remember the dates. I'm thinking they might not have needed it in Wyoming as soon as they did in the Washington DC suburbs. It had crossed my mind for period correct shop truck door signs. I always check the phone exchange on old literature. It might help when dating the material if I knew the dates of the change. 55ish?
As a kid growing up in Wichester M***achusetts my folks shared a party line with one other family. They had a young daughter about my age who was constantly on the phone. I had to interrupt her numerous times to get the line for my calls. It was a challange! Our original phone number in the early 50's was WINCHESTER 6 0119J It later became PArkview 9 0119 and eventually it evolved to 781 729 0119. In those early 50's they actually had polite and real live operators who spoke fluent English.
ME(rimack) 2-2352...1950s...party line also. I remember picking up the phone and an operator telling me "don't play with the phone son"..!!!
Heres the Forgotten Chicago site link to phone numbers. Gives a short history of phone numbers. Might help. http://www.forgottenchicago.com/tel.php Cosmo
Thumbing thru the ads in the back of a 1950 Hot Rod magazine I see lots of 4 digit and lots of 5 digit numbers (two letters first or a name before most of them). Probably the changeover happened at different times in each city.
Hunt down a 75 year old from your area. I'll bet you'll get a good answer. Next best, BR549, Hee Hee Hee Hee Hee, Hee Haw.
LOL! I actually collect and restore old Western Electric telephones, from the turn of the century through dives***ure in the 80s! ~Jason
I collect WE telephones too....but mostly only orange Trimlines! I have a big box full, and a few in the house that we use regularly.
That's a pretty cool deal too! A person could learn a lot of history of the area the old phone book covers by questions started from old business addresses, etc.
Are you looking for a number from a specific person or business, or just want a representative phone number for a particular time in history? The Minnesota History Center in St. Paul has old phone books as well as city directories on file, you can request information from them or get someone local to go there and dig through the files. http://www.mnhs.org/ They also have an online photographic database, you could poke around in there and see if you can find something that would help out. There are a lot of pictures of old cars and motorcycles that are pretty cool. http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresources/
My sister lives in Santa Ana, California and her phone number is still the same as it was in 1962 only up dated. Was JE1-5198 (JE= Jefferson).
My Dad's electrical business was HArrison 44421, then it became 424-4421 when the exchange names were discontinued. Same number, of course.
I have a fetish for 302 sets, and have a bunch of early 500s. I run those, 554s, and a Sculptura in the house, and a Railroad scissors phone in the office. Still looking for a cheap 520 (mine/explosion-proof)! I have all kinds of **** - including a plaque in the bathroom that says, "No job is so important, and no service is to urgent that we cannot take time to perform our work safely." The first time I ever flirted with a girl I was working for AT&T in the Western Electric plant in Kansas City. Someone showed me a painting of the building, and I smiled, and pointed to the exact window where, 10 feet beyond, was the very spot. I'm ********. LOL! Needless to say, rotary lives on at my house. My kids are 3 and can not only dial a rotary phone, but they know what a telephone table is for, and use it! ~Jason
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