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The TEN Project - Researching Telephone Exchange Names

Started by Phonesrfun, October 28, 2009, 12:01:40 AM

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Phonesrfun

Foots:

I went there and did the drop-down of Chappaqua from the cities list.  No other inputs.  CE shows up there as CEntral.

Their search engine is very slow.  Select the city and then go get a Coke or something while you wait for it to come back to you.

Good luck
-Bill G

Kenny C

#16
can any one find the exchange for Parsons T.N.
In memory of
  Marie B.
1926-2010

Phonesrfun

Try The Exchange Name Project at http://rcrowe.brinkster.net/tensearch.aspx

It is a slow database and takes some getting used to, but it has proven to be very helpful.
-Bill G

Kenny C

#18
 Parsons=VIctory-7
Decaturville=ULrich-2
Lexington=WOodland-8
Scotts Hill= LIberty-9
and Sardis= UL(guessng ULrich-8)
In memory of
  Marie B.
1926-2010

AET

- Tom

Kenny C

is it a small town with a larger city it might have shared an exchange with the bigger city
In memory of
  Marie B.
1926-2010

rp2813

Kenny, check and see if your library has any old directories that would provide exchange names, or you can look up some old newspapers and skim through the ads for phone numbers.
Ralph

Kenny C

In memory of
  Marie B.
1926-2010

AET

- Tom

bingster

If it's a very small town, the chances are very likely that it never had an exchange.  Many small towns and suburban places had party lines with numbers like 42J or 6M13. Or if they had direct dial, non-party systems, they might have had complete phone numbers like 42 or 738.   Today we're so used to a standard number configuration that it's hard to understand that there was a time when there was absolutely nothing approaching a nationwide standard, and for a very large percentage of the population, exchange names were something totally foreign.  Many places didn't get a standard exchange until the 1960s, after exchange names were officially dropped.
= DARRIN =



AET

I was thinking the same thing.  I've bought some phones locally with numbers like 42W in the dial center.
- Tom

McHeath

As I know who built my house I was able to look them up at the library in an old telephone directory.  That gave me the phone number for my house back in the day, which is pretty fun to have that info. 

Kenny C

Thats neat I know my grandmas was

VIctory 7-2546

And my great aunts was 

VIctory 7-2544
In memory of
  Marie B.
1926-2010

marty

Hi All;
Is there a listing of the standard Bell Exchange Names.. Here the numbers are 449, 494, 499, What word would have been used... Where I grew up, it was West 5, (935)... I am trying to find the right Center dial Exchange word...
THANK YOU Marty

jsowers

#29
Marty,

Here's a website with a huge databse of exchange names and a lookup by numbers dialed, city and state. It's not the greatest search engine in the world, but it works. They also have a link to the list of recommended exchange names if your search by city and state doesn't bring anything up.
http://ourwebhome.com/TENP/TENproject.html

There's a nice GIbraltar card in the Type II cards on Dave Margulius' site. They aren't arranged in order by exchange name, so it takes some looking. It's a great site, though.

http://www.telephonearchive.com/numbercards/index.html
Jonathan