Old telephone exchange prefixes

[kc7jty]

Mine was Kingswood, and I remember: Ludlow, Clearfield, Saratoga, Hilltop, Madison, Lehigh.....

[k6bbc]

When I was a kid it was Axminster (AX) - then we got a second line that was Vermont (VE).

[G0GQK]

One of the most famous in London Whitehall 1212

Mel G0GQK

[ka5piu]

Hello.

CApitol (22)
MAin (62)
TAylor (82)
Just to name a few.

[K2WH]

Swathmore and then the (5) digit number or SW5-1212. THis was in Jersey City, NJ about 50 years ago.

Never knew what Swathmore stood for.

K2WH

[w0aew]

In north Dallas, DIamond (of course!).

And who can forget BUtterfield 8?

[k4kyv]

PEnsylvania 6-5000

[ka3trx]

HOpkins

[N4AUD]

My number when I was a kid was Export5-2164.

[WD8OQX]

Surprises me no-one has said
"BR-549"

[K9QJ]

Hell...I remember givin' the cranker a turn and sayin "Hey Loretta,get me the Doc!" (Just kidding) SHeridan 4-6092 and HUmboldt 3-7894. (Milwaukee, Wi.) In Vietnam I would in fact give the field phone a crank and the operator would answer by saying "Kansas Sir." I wasn't an officer, but whan in doubt as to who is calling,it's better to say "sir."

[ab8ma]

SCarsdale5-0542 in the 1950's was my (parents) number.

[K7KBN]

Our original number in Las Vegas was "631". This changed to DUdley 4-1631 in about 1960. Even though my mom moved around the Vegas area until I moved her up to Washington, she kept the 384-1631 number.

Anyone remember Allan Sherman? ("Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh...")?

It's the "The Let's All Call Up AT&T And Protest To The President March."
Can't you see him smirking and smiling?
'Cause he's got us all digit dialing.
So let's all call up AT&T and protest to the president march.

So protest! Do your best!
Let us show him that we march in unity.
If he won't change the rules,
Let's take our business to another phone company.

Let's all call up AT&T and protest to the president march.

Let us wake him up in his slumber.
Get a pencil, I'll give you his number.
It's 3 1 8 5 2 7 3
0 8 7 4 2 9 dash!
5 1 1 4 9 0 6 7
4 0 8 5 2 hyphen!
1 1 4 6 2 0 5
7 9 hyphen dash 0 3.

And now that you're on the right road,
Don't forget his Area Code.
Which is 5 1 8 2 4 7 9
0 5 hyphen dash 9 4.

Where are the days of Auld Lang Syne?
Butterfield 8! Plaza 9!
Let's keep those beautiful names alive.
Crestview 6! Gramercy 5!
Get ready to fight before it's too late!
Temple 2! Murray Hill 8!
Let's let them know that this means war!
Gettysburg 3! Concord 4! Hurray!

To the millions of telephone subscribers
We'll erect a triumphal arch,
For the Let's All Call Up AT&T and Protest to the President March!

[K8MCN]

SKYline =759
ATlas=28
makes me feel really old-my kids havnt even seen a "dial phone" or a "party line"

[N4AUD]

Back then, we could just dial the 4 numbers, then we had to start dialing the "5", then they upgraded again and we had to dial all 7 numbers.
I've got a dial phone here in the shack. Works great, and when I saw that cell phone commercial where the guy whacks the other in the head, I thought "Lucky he didn't use one of these old Ma Bell phones." He would have killed him.

[kc7jty]

And the generic woman (she was real back then) who would tell you a number over the phone using the old prefixes.
It all had a Stepford wives feel to it.

If you got caught with a bootleg phone then you could get into some serious trouble.
Where'd ya get the phone son?......."I ain't talkin without my lawyer".

[N4AUD]

Owning your own phone and direct dialing. Kids now take that for granted, they've never heard of a "long distance operator."

Call the operator, tell her the number or person you wanted to call, hang up and she'd call you back when she made the connection.

[kc7jty]

Quote[/b] (n4aud @ May 05 2007,15:34)]Call the operator, tell her the number or person you wanted to call, hang up and she'd call you back when she made the connection.
Then listened in to add to her gossip reservoir.

[wa8rti]

When we got our first phone shortly after WW2, it was a party line and you had to listen for your ring. There was 2 longs, 2 short, a long and a short #and I think a short and a long. We had some neighbors who would listen in on calls. And one family's daughter was having boy friend problems and he was calling at all hours, day and night. They solved their problem by taking their phone off the hook so only the rest of the people on the party line got bothered. After the change from dialing 4 digits, we went to IVanhoe 2 + the 4. I never did figure why the cutesy names and not just a straight change to 7 digits. I guess #it was supposed to be easier to remember.

[W1GUH]

Great topic!

SE Mich had...

Federal (Pontiac)
Midwest (Birmingham)
Orlando (Waterford)
Olive

Those were free.

Then there was one that was stillborne..

Overbrook, I think, but it turned into 68 before going into service.

Detroit, of course, had Woodward

WO2-2000 The Detroit News

And who can forget Butterfield 8
or Pennsylvania 65000 (Did I get the number right?)

And, when I had a landline in NYC (Yorkville), my prefix was 348...does anyone know if that ever had a name?

Oh, and the phone I grew up with FE4-2353. When we got to the age where we put in our own phones (with the bell disconnected http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif We'd type DEceased4-xxxx.

And remember "At the tone, the time will be....?"

I think it was around '60 or '61 that we discovered that there was crosstalk between all the lines listening to the time, and all of a sudden it was a great party! People were calling up time and talking to a whole bunch of people. I even got a phone number of a girl that way. She sent me her picture, but lived all the way across town so we never got together. Pity Ma Bell "fixed" the problem and ended the party. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif

[K9STH]

MOhawk 4, 4 100, CET for television. That was a television commercial that aired on Chicago television for years. CET was a television set dealer.

ADams 1, 3987 was (in fact still is) my main telephone number in Richardson, Texas.

Glen, K9STH

[K6BTM]

Grew up with Thornwall (TH) 8-1547. Never heard or saw that one used anywhere else. Anyone ?

[KD6NIG]

Zenith 1-2000 I think was the California Highway Patrol.

[W3MIV]

Not only do I remember the old Wilkens exchange (and Saratoga, Mulberry, Hopkins, Belvedere, Longwood, and a host of other Baltimore standards), but when I was a kid you picked up the telephone and an operator asked: "Number, puleeeeeeze." Didn't even have a dial, just a round label with WIlkens 1852 stamped on it.


Yes, that was my actual home 'phone number back in the late 40s and early 50s.

Later came dials; then still later, an extra exchange digit was added, and my old home number became WIlkens 5-1852 (there was also a WIlkens 7 exchange).

I still have one of the old black, cast-metal and bakelite phones with a brown, fabric-covered cord. The handset must weigh three pounds. If you did a lot of calling, you got a good workout.

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[W3MIV]

I also remember postal zones -- before the ubiquitous zip code. Mine was Baltimore 29, Maryland.

Ah, nostalgia. But you can never go home.

[WF7A]

CR4-5225; CR was for Crestwood.

...at least that was our phone number in Dayton, OH, in the early 1960s.

[kc7jty]

MOhawk was one in the Philadelphia area also. Maybe there were set names for all first 2 numbers?
Whenever I was in the car (with one of my parents driving) I knew we had ventured far when I saw a new telephone number name advertised somewhere along the way.

[KG4CGC]

Quote[/b] (WD8OQX @ May 05 2007,16:07)]Surprises me no-one has said
"BR-549"
Ah yes, but I was reading your mind.

[wa4brl]

Lyric (LY or 59) in Newport News Virginia. There was LY5 and LY6. My folk's were of the LY6 persuasion.

[AG3Y]

The first telephone number I ever had to learn as a kid was a Freeport, Il. number, "Red 3566" #My home phone. #I don't know why I can still remember that one, #heck I have a difficult enough time remembering my PRESENT home phone number ! ! ! #http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif #http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/blues.gif

73, Jim #( now you know why I got an Extra. #It would have been too hard for me to remember all those letters in a 2 X 3 ham call ! ) #http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

edit: CGC, you're driving those tubes a bit hard, aren't you ? http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif !

[W5HTW]

I rather vaguely remember the operator lines but was too young to use the phone. But I heard it when my grandmother made a phone call. Most lines were party lines.

I do, though, remember the 5-digit numbers. Like 73456 as a phone number. Written as 7-3456.

Later as a teen in Denver, my home phone began with EMpire something, but I have long since forgotten the number. I think there was an EM-4 and an EM-6. EMPIRE. You could dial within your own exchange, that is, EM-6, by just dialing the last four numbers, but if you wanted the other EMpire number, or any other exchange, you had to dial the EM as well. There were no area codes. If you wanted to place a long distance call, you went through the operator. Period.

I was living in Dover Delaware when DDD came out! Direct Distance Dialing. My phone number was REDFIELD something, four, I think. So my number was RE-4-xxxx. There was also a RE-6-xxxx. Now there were Area Codes, and you could dial directly to other area codes. Wow!

Eventually the names went away, replaced by numbers. RE-4 became 734-xxxx.

Even in the early 1980s when I lived in Silverton, Colorado, we could dial within town by just dialing the last four digits. But if we wanted to dial Durango, we had to dial the entire number, but not the area code. I think all the four digit dialing is long gone!

We have come a long ways! I was just talking to someone today about the fact that no matter where I go in the US (and possibly Canada and Mexico as well) you can simply dial my cell phone and get me. Totally amazing. And it doesn't take long, four rings, maybe. Just blows my mind that a portable phone can be located almost instantly, anywhere in the USA.

I have in a box around the house, (just found it in my desk drawer) a very old ice pick. Anyone remember them? This one has a square handle, made of heavy metal, about twice the diameter of a pencil. It is from the Duluth Ice and Fuel Company. The phone number: Melrose 860.

It has four sides to the handle, which is almost square. In order, the read:

Call Melrose 860
For Hartmade Pure Ice
Made from City Water Only
Duluth Ice And Fuel Company

In tiny letters near one end it reads: ATD5-24-14

Those were the days of, "Operator, give me Melrose 860"

Ed

[VO1GXG]

Prospect9-9900 For the nearest Muntz TV dealer .

[kc7jty]

MElrose sounds like one all right!

[KG4CGC]

Quote[/b] (AG3Y @ May 05 2007,20:57)]CGC, you're driving those tubes a bit hard, aren't you ? http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif !
20,000 volt grids!
Those are just audio tubes!
Wait until I get the monoblocks set up!

[kc7jty]

It WAS a conspiracy:
http://ourwebhome.com/TENP/Recommended.html

[W0MT]

Our first phone number was 458W. It was a party line and the other side was 458J. When you want to call someone you picked up the phone and the operator said, "Number Please." After a while you got to know the operators by their voices. You could say something like, "Phylis, would you ring the Jones for me please." Then we moved to the big city and got NIagra 2-935

[K9STH]

The first dial telephone system installed anywhere in the world was in my home town of LaPorte, Indiana (about 50 miles east of Chicago) in 1892 (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dial for a reference). The independent telephone company that installed the system was eventually "bought out" by General Telephone Company (now Verizon). The dial system was not expanded outside of the city until the late 1950s.

My grandmother lived on the main highway between LaPorte and South Bend about 5 miles east of the city. When she moved in town in 1957 after my grandfather died she still had a "crank" telephone and a 12 party line! There was a 1.5 volt "dry cell" mounted on the outside wall of the house which provided power for the microphone. Her "rings" were "two shorts and a long".

General Telephone didn't provide "direct distance dialing" in LaPorte until the mid 1970s. My father was here in Richardson, Texas (suburb of Dallas), in the early 1970s and needed to make a long distance call. He picked up the receiver and dialed the operator. When she came on the line he asked her for a number in LaPorte. My father was "flabbergasted" when she told him that he could dial the number himself!

Glen, K9STH

[NC5P]

I remember being very little and hearing our number as AXtel 9. It wasn't long afterward that they quit using those letters. My parents had the same phone number from before I was born until that house was sold in 2003. The only phone in the house for years was a yellow wall model in the kitchen.

[ka0gkt]

Quote[/b] (WD8OQX @ May 05 2007,14:07)]Surprises me no-one has said
"BR-549"
Mine was PArk-1
My Grandparents in Omaha, NE were KLondike-6

a month or two ago, I saw a really beat-up old car the other day in Tucson which had the custom license plate BR-549; however, the driver didn't look anything like Junior Samples.

73 DE KAØGKT/7

--Steve

[k4kyv]

The old prefixes were the 1st two letters of a name or a word because it was easier to remember than random numbers.

Our old prefix was MIdway. The phone numbers all started with a 5- or a 7-. Later, they did away with the old MIdway exchange prefix and made the prefixes 645- and 647-. Nothing actually changed. You still dialled the same numbers on the telephone.

Now, we must have at least a dozen prefixes, plus all the additional cell phone prefixes.

[w2amr]

TILTON

[AD7DK]

My parents number was Trinity 8 -3625

Later, when I was alive, it became 878-3625. I guess the names were to hard to remember. I always wondered why they used the names instead of numbers to begin with.

[W3MIV]

Quote[/b] (AD7DK @ May 06 2007,06:05)]My parents number was Trinity 8 -3625

Later, when I was alive, it became 878-3625. I guess the names were to hard to remember. I always wondered why they used the names instead of numbers to begin with.
The names were generally the locations of the exchanges. In a large city like Baltimore was when I was a tyke, there were about a dozen (more?) exchanges located throughout the city that handled the neighborhood connections. Many were named after the district or street name of their location.

I think the names were easier to remember because you could almost always identify the location with a particular exchange. More and more phones meant a need to create exchange codes in excess of what could be created from the names.

Now folks just ask you for a phone number. When I was a little kid, they first asked IF you had a phone at home! It is a surprising thing to many people now to think that not everybody had a phone. Or a TV. Or, as the case of my father, even a car! He never owned one in his life.

Oh, BTW Bill, I can see how "Melrose" might strike up a bit of appeal, but that stuff was pretty rough. The old distillery is still standing, though it is now a warehouse.

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[W4HAY]

Ours was REdfield 9, when we finally got dial somewhere in the early 1950s. Before then, we picked up the phone and 'Central' would ask: "Number, please?"

Ah, the joys of life in a small Southern town! Dad's office was 103 and our home was 371. 'Central' was also an expert on what to do until the ambulance arrived, especially when it came to birthin' babies. #http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif #We thought nothing of the fact that the 'ambulance' was actually a hearse from one of the local mortuaries, and the funeral home guys were all trained as paramedics. 'Central' could also give you the time and the weather forecast -- and knew all the juiciest gossip!

We got our very own radio station in 1946, a 250 Watter on 1340 Kc with the call WTSB -- Where Tobacco Sells Best. The chief engineer preferred We Three Sons of B*tches, referring to the three guys that owned it.

Amazing what one can remember after a half-century -- considering I had to stop and think what I had for breakfast three hours ago! #http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

[N7CPC]

Back in my hometown it was CLinton 1 (251)

[n2nh]

The exchange we had when I was a kid was MOnument 6, but there was also RIverside 7. I also remember MUrray hill 8 from an old commercial.

MO6 ended up 666 when they switched to all numbers.

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif

[W3MIV]

Quote[/b] (n2nh @ May 06 2007,17:09)]The exchange we had when I was a kid was MOnument 6, but there was also RIverside 7. #I also remember MUrray hill 8 from an old commercial. #

MO6 ended up 666 when they switched to all numbers.

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif
That figures: A liberal leftist would have a Satanic symbol!

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[w8ob]

NE Mi. had ELmwood but before that was just 3 or 4 numbers to get you through. Ah how I remember the old party lines. Who can forget the occasional cross talk on the lines as well. My best DX crosstalk mode as a kid was from Alpena, Mi to Hubbard Lake, Michigan via the CT mode. Exchanges with the woman on the other end were 5 by 5

[N9LCD]

Our first exchange was YA7- (YARDS for the Union Stock Yards).

I recall a YA9-; HE5 (Hemlock); ST1 (State for State Street);
and SU* (Superior)

With some of these old exchanges you could kind of "guess" where a phone was; the name of the exchange gave you a clue where it was and the phones out of that exchange were "concentrated" around it.

Chicago may be home to the first "automated" phone system in the U.S. About 100 years ago, the predecessor of "Automatic Electric" introduced a dial-up phone system in Chicago in competition to the "Bell" interests.

THE DIAL-UP PHONE SYSTEM FLOPPED! PHONE SUBSCRIBERS AT THAT TIME PREFERRED USING AN OPERATOR!!!


JERRY

N9LCD


PS: Te telephone system is one place where "automation" was a necessity. There's no way anyone could buil;d enough physical exchanges and hire enough operators to handle even a fraction of today's traffic.

[WA3WDR]

Twin Harbors 5 in Bayville, Long Island.

[K0RGR]

In Stockton, CA - HOward...

[n2nh]

Quote[/b] (W3MIV @ May 06 2007,18:30)]Quote[/b] (n2nh @ May 06 2007,17:09)]The exchange we had when I was a kid was MOnument 6, but there was also RIverside 7. I also remember MUrray hill 8 from an old commercial.

MO6 ended up 666 when they switched to all numbers.

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif
That figures: A liberal leftist would have a Satanic symbol!

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
You know, growing up, I never saw anyone put anything pass my Father. I'm certain he'll be thrilled to hear that one since it was his number. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

BTW, FYI Mr. Know-it-all, MOnument stood for Grants Tomb National MOnument. It was just a few blocks away.

[ka0gkt]

Quote[/b] (G0GQK @ May 05 2007,11:57)]One of the most famous in London Whitehall 1212

Mel G0GQK


Good number to know if you happen to need Scotland Yard.


Back in the '60s, Nebraska had more independant telephone companies than any other state. #My Great Uncle lived on the farm which my Great-Grandparents in the 1800s. #Uncle Albert had a magneto phone up until her moved off the farm in 1970. I can remember calling long distance and getting the Hooper operator and having her ring Uncle Albert. If Albert had a telephone number, I don't remember it. I do remember asking the operator for the Weigle place and being connected


73 DE KAØGKT/7

--Steve

[n2cfj]

I grew up in Leonia NJ with the original exchange of LEonia 4. #then some time c 1960 it changed to WIndsor 4. #Now its 944. #I also remember the first "area code". #When I was a kid, we would dial 11 to call New York City from north NJ without an operator. #Since my grandmother lived in the Bronx, hers was the first number (other than my own) that I memorized, JErome 8-3758.

Another number that's stuck in my head is MUrray Hill 5-5300 which was the number in a radio jingle for, I think, Macy's shop at home upholstery service. Most of the jingle was repeating the number over and over.

[WA3WDR]

Hamilton 3, Hamilton 7 on Long Island. Now 423 and 427.

[ae4fa]

Who can forget BEachwood 4 5789

I don't recall any from my hometown because we didn't have any. And there were no dials on the phone. We'd just tell the operator what 3 or 4 digit number we wanted. Just a small step up (or was it down?) from, "Sarah, get me the diner."

[kl7aj]

In Atherton California, we had Emerson and Davenport

[k4avl]

I'm originally from Paterson NJ, and our number was ARmory 4-2716. they also had LAmberts and MUrrayhill in NJ in that area. Later when we moved a bit north to the Ridgewood NJ area, there were GIlbert and OLiver. Our number was GIlbert7-1989.
In NYC, nearby, may grandmother's number in Queens was VAndyke 1-2867, an uncle in Queens had VIrginia- something.
On the NBC AM talk radio in NYC, with Long John Nebel and female psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers, the call in number was always PLaza 7-8866, I believe.
That PEnnsyvania 6-5000 number I believe, is still active, and has been since 1919, for the Pennsylvania Hotel.
Before areas codes were institiuted around 1960, we could call NYC from NJ with the area code "11"
NYC was the last city to eliminate letter codes, I believe, still showing in the phone books right through the 60's, there was also the KIngsbridge exchange from the SW Bronx, some people's phones they rented from the Bell System still had the old number with the letter codes even in the 80's if they had the same old phones.
Check out this site for more info:

http://ourwebhome.com/TENP/TENproject.html