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My Local Exchange, and what's yours?

Started by WesternElectricBen, November 16, 2013, 10:31:53 PM

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HarrySmith

Quote from: Brinybay on November 19, 2013, 03:46:31 AM
Our pots line # is a custom number I requested because it was on one of my vintage phones, the first digits are 324, but I don't know what that exchange was, I couldn't find it in the TENproject Database. The original dial card just lists the number.

That was one of the prefixes in my hometown DA4 ;D
Harry Smith
ATCA 4434
TCI

"There is no try,
there is only
do or do not"

WesternElectricBen

Quote from: Brinybay on November 19, 2013, 03:46:31 AM
Growing up in the northern burbs of Seattle it was PRospect.  I don't know what the exchange name was in our current location, this old house was built in 1914.  It's just outside the Seattle city border and was in unincorporated King county until not to long ago when it was annexed into Lake Forest Park, WA.

Our pots line # is a custom number I requested because it was on one of my vintage phones, the first digits are 324, but I don't know what that exchange was, I couldn't find it in the TENproject Database. The original dial card just lists the number.

Brinybay, that is a really cool looking house, I like the open rafter look on the roof.

Having an original phone is always sentimental.

Ben

WesternElectricBen

Quote from: david@london on November 19, 2013, 07:51:31 AM
..........this is a rare survivor - an old shop front at  Victor's hairdressers in the VALentine exchange area in north east london.

Now that is cool they kept the old number up!

Ben

Doug Rose

#33
Kidphone

Sargeguy

#34
My grandmother, an old NET&T employee liked to tell us her phone number using "GAspee" as the prefix.  Now that I live in the house the number has changed to a 35 prefix, which would have been "ELmhurst" back in the day.

Gaspee refers to the British custom schooner HMS Gaspée, the burning of which by Rhode Islanders in 1772 started the American Revolution.  It was named for the city in Quebec.  Lest you Anglophone Canadians feel left out, we burned the HMS St. John in 1769.
Greg Sargeant
Providence, RI
TCI /ATCA #4409

ReneRondeau

When I was growing up in Massachusetts our prefix was RE for REpublic.

Where I live today in California the old number prefix was WA. I assumed it to be WAlnut but I later found that it actually was WAbash. When I made dial cards for my working phones I printed them out with "WAbash 4", which was the exchange in this town, and rubber-stamped the remaining 4 digits. Very cool.

dsk

#36
I took 2 pics of our exchange today.
Hakadal Exchange was probably built when the wally went from magneto to rotary in 1968.
By some reason the short text on the boxes around in the area, always are named HAC + some numeric codes.

dsk

PS
I believe all number her was 02 (Oslo area) and 6 digits starting with 77.
When we got 8 digits, and no area-code  all numbers was starting with 6707 (and later some 6706).
By now we have number-portability, so you may move from another part of the country, and keep your landline number. 

DS

Nick in Manitou

As a kid growing up north of Washington, D.C. in a rural part of Maryland, we had SPring4-9286 and that was changed after a few years to WAlker4-9286.

We had a party line for a short time and my mother was always saying "Please hang up now, thank you!" into the phone because she was sure that someone was listening in...

I still think that it would be easier to remember a phone number if someone said, "Evergreen 3 1307", than it would be to remember someone's number if told, "383 1307"

Nick

Bridie

I'm not sure about exchanges here in Nova Scotia.  I found one online for Bridgewater (LIberty) but nothing about Halifax exchanges.  Last week I was poring over old Halifax telephone directories at the library.  In 1933 my great-grandparents' number was B 5504, and in 1956 my grandparents' and parents' number was 3-3257.  I created dial cards for a couple of my phones and my 1931 WE 202 now bears my great-grandparents' number, and my 1950s NE Uniphone #1 bears my grandparents' and parents' number, which I think is pretty cool :)
Bridget

WesternElectricBen

Very cool pictures DSK! It's cool to go to one in real life. I have no clue where ours is in MN.

Ben

JimH

#40
Here, it was "OLive".
Jim H.

gpo706

#41
Our old one was "DONaldson", which made no sense atlall as it doesn't refer to any geographic area.

Then I had a revelation, it was named after Donaldson's School for the Deaf, by far the biggest landmark near the exchange.

The exchange is still operative, and still in it's original location at Russell road, it's basically a 5 or 6 minute walk from the (former) school, which has re-located to modern premises and the grand old building was being converted to luxury flats last I heard in 2008, just in time for the global recession...

DONaldson became 337 or 346 when they dropped the exchange names, our first number in the house was 337 8235, and on a party line with a neighbour 5 houses down!
"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"

poplar1

Quote from: WesternElectricBen on December 19, 2013, 05:08:11 PM
Very cool pictures DSK! It's cool to go to one in real life. I have no clue where ours is in MN.

Ben

Enter the NPA (Area Code) and NXX of a landline in your neighborhood. Then when it populates, click on "detailed switch info."

http://www.telcodata.us/search-area-code-exchange-detail
"C'est pas une restauration, c'est une rénovation."--François Martin.

WesternElectricBen

Cool sight, I just typed mine in and found the info.

Ben

Bridie

Quote from: poplar1 on December 20, 2013, 10:26:14 PM
Enter the NPA (Area Code) and NXX of a landline in your neighborhood. Then when it populates, click on "detailed switch info."

http://www.telcodata.us/search-area-code-exchange-detail

Thanks for that!
Bridget