Beneath Lincoln Center, the music has died for this pay phone

I’ve written extensively on The Retrologist about the pay phone’s long goodbye. I submit another example of this communication platform on its deathbed. 

I snapped this photo a few days ago in the 66th Street Lincoln Center subway station. As you can tell, the pay phone is long gone, pulled out with no replacement presumably on its way.

Until recently, the subway was the scene of the pay phone’s last stand. Recall that you could rarely get a signal down there, and so you’d have no choice but to slip a quarter into the coin slot if you had to tell someone you were running late. 

But that survival advantage didn’t last long. Cell phone service and even WiFi are increasingly available on underground subway platforms.

And then there was the change in consumer habits. Even though I knew I could use a pay phone in the subway, I simply wouldn’t. It made more sense to simply run upstairs if I truly needed to make a call.

Or it was even more sensical to wait — why touch that grimy device that might not even be working if I picked up the receiver. (Receiver! Not many people under, say, 35, even know the handset once had the quaint name.)

So, the pay phone died in the subway, too. 

When I saw the phone I photographed here, I wasn’t immediately convinced I would turn it into a blog post. Empty phone kiosks are a common sight these days.

But then, I checked BEHIND the phone and struck gold. There survived a sticker for Bell Atlantic, and decades of dusk and grime piled up right beneath it. 

Sort of fitting.

— Rolando Pujol

Lumber Boys is in Murray Hill, and here’s a cool way to figure that out. Look at the old-fashioned phone number just above the door. It conceals the neighborhood name in a code of sorts: MUrray-0410. You’d dial M and U on your phone, or 68, and the rest of the number. #nyc #history #phone #urbanarchaeology

Lumber Boys is in Murray Hill, and here’s a cool way to figure that out. Look at the old-fashioned phone number just above the door. It conceals the neighborhood name in a code of sorts: MUrray-0410. You’d dial M and U on your phone, or 68, and the rest of the number. #nyc #history #phone #urbanarchaeology

A Bell Atlantic-branded pay phone survives at Pete’s Tavern, appropriate given that this bar, dating to 1864, is among NYC’s most historic. Bell Atlantic was founded in 1984, merged with NYNEX in New York in 1997, and operated under the Bell brand in NYC for three short years until becoming Verizon in 2000. Oh, and guess what? The phone doesn’t work. #phone #payphone #payphoneography

A Bell Atlantic-branded pay phone survives at Pete’s Tavern, appropriate given that this bar, dating to 1864, is among NYC’s most historic. Bell Atlantic was founded in 1984, merged with NYNEX in New York in 1997, and operated under the Bell brand in NYC for three short years until becoming Verizon in 2000. Oh, and guess what? The phone doesn’t work. #phone #payphone #payphoneography

This fantastic vintage sticker survives outside an auto-repair shop in Tarrytown, N.Y. There’s a lot going on here for the “retrologically” inclined. First, it harkens to the days when New York’s phone company was called NYNEX, which dates this to 1984-97. (NOTE: It was marketed as New York Telephone, a NYNEX company, from 1984 to 94, then just as NYNEX for three more years, but the Yellow Pages business was known as NYNEX during all those years.) Second, it promotes the Yellow Pages! Who uses those anymore, even as booster seats? Thirdly, it features the iconic “Let Your Fingers Do the Walking” logo. And, my, that is one intense shade of yellow. (No filter needed.) Text and photo: Rolando Pujol #phones #phone #yellowpages #nynex #verizon #telephones #history #branding #tarrytown (Taken with Instagram) Follow @RolandoPujol ]]>

This fantastic vintage sticker survives outside an auto-repair shop in Tarrytown, N.Y. There’s a lot going on here for the “retrologically” inclined.

First, it harkens to the days when New York’s phone company was called NYNEX, which dates this to 1984-97. (NOTE: It was marketed as New York Telephone, a NYNEX company, from 1984 to 94, then just as NYNEX for three more years, but the Yellow Pages business was known as NYNEX during all those years.)

Second, it promotes the Yellow Pages! Who uses those anymore, even as booster seats?

Thirdly, it features the iconic “Let Your Fingers Do the Walking” logo.

And, my, that is one intense shade of yellow. (No filter needed.)

Text and photo: Rolando Pujol

#phones #phone #yellowpages #nynex #verizon #telephones #history #branding #tarrytown (Taken with Instagram)