Need help removing a Gray Payphone from a wall

[Rgray107918]

Thank you for the info!  I'm sorry to ask this here, as I know some forums discourage discussing sales on the open forum, but could anyone point me to a place where this could be sold to people who would know what it is and appreciate it?

I would normally take the time to find that information myself, but my siblings and I are trying to find such markets for many collectible things and we are somewhat limited on time/availability. Any help we can get to cut down on the time to find such places would be appreciated.

This is probably a bit cheesy to share, but it feels appropriate.  My family name is Gray.  Also, several people in our family have worked in the telephone industry.  Our grandfather was a forward observer in WWII operating morse code.  When he got home he worked in the telephone industry and retired as a manager from AT&T.  My father worked on the east coast for Chesapeake and Potomac, then Bell Atlantic, and retired as an engineer for Verizon.  We don't have any evidence that we have family lineage to Elisha Gray, but there is a fond feeling for telephone in general and especially this particular Gray Paystation.  We would very much like to see it go to someone who appreciates telephone as much as our family.

I am very happy to have found this forum.

[poplar1]

The Gray of Gray Pay Station Co. was William Gray.

Elisha Gray was the guy who filed his patent 2 hours later (supposedly) than Alexander Graham Bell.

[Rgray107918]

I think I knew that.  At any rate, our family has never really told ourselves we have any relation to the Gray's that invented/patented.

[MMikeJBenN27]

Welcome!  It is always great to have somebody with industry connections!

Mike

[Rgray107918]

I was able to speak with my Uncle and get the back story on this phone. 
I didn't realize my father's phone career went back further than Chesapeake and Potomac.  Prior to that he worked at a Western Electric plant on an assembly line categorizing phones and parts for repair or excess. This phone was categorized as excess and was to be thrown away. 
Apparently there was a second phone even more rare as well.  The other phone was never installed for the public - it was installed at a central station and was used for testing of some sort and had some special parts installed or was in some way different than phones installed for public use.  That phone is no longer around, and was sold some years ago.

Would anyone be able to make a guess based on what's inside this phone, why it would have been categorized for excess?

[poplar1]

The circuit is sidetone (pre-1931); the phone is 5 cents, and depending on local preferences, the separate transmitter and receiver style ("two-piece") may have been considered obsolete.

When phones were removed from service by the Bell company, they were returned to the Western Electric Repair Shop, later called Service Center.

In a process they called "preanalyzation", each phone was either remanufactured, converted, mined for parts, or sold for scrap.

There were only two "two-piece" payphones (155H) in service in Montréal as of 1978. Both were semi-public phones at indoor locations: an epicerie on Ontario St. and a cordonnier on St. Christophe.

[Payphone installer]

Phone is  worth about 1500.00 dollars.

[poplar1]

Phone is  worth about 1500.00 dollars.

Is this the same phone that recently sold for $2,800 on Ebay?

[SUnset2]

Is this the same phone that recently sold for $2,800 on Ebay?

No, the one that sold on Oct. 23, 2023 on Ebay for $2800 wasn't as nice.  It was a later model Western Electric without Gray, and may have been missing some parts.
Somebody wanted it badly.