WE had various locations for their Distributing Houses, later renamed Service Centers. Phones that were remanufactured there are often marked with a single letter (such as P for Philadelphia) or later two letters (such as NO for New Orleans). Sometimes you will see the single letter in a box stamped on reissued parts such as receivers on desk stands (candlesticks). In the 1960s, remanufactured phones (R stock) had a code such as WAR where the second letter indicated the location.
If you have any additional information on the single letters, or any additional locations, please reply. (One 1950s WE ad said there were 32 Distributing Houses.)
They supplied just about everything to the Bell companies, including many items from other manufacturers. The repair shops where phone company owned (and later customer owned) phones were remanufactured were also onsite at these locations.
Single Letter:
H---?
P---Philadelphia
A---Atlanta
Here is a list of 27 locations as of November, 1983:
Region 1:
BO New England
CN Connecticut
SY Syracuse
NY Manhattan
Region 2:
NJ New Jersey
PA King of Prussia
WA Washington DC
Region 3:
AT Atlanta
CA Charlotte
MI Miami
NA Nashville
NO New Orleans
Region 4:
MD Minneapolis
OA Omaha
IL Illinois
MK Wisconsin
MN Michigan
CD Cleveland
Region 5:
DA Dallas
HU Houston
KA Kansas City
DN Denver
PX Phoenix
ST St. Louis
Region 6:
LA Southern California
SE Washington
SN Northern California
Source: Material Logistics Customer Premises Equipment and Supplies Catalog, AT&T Information Systems, Issue One, November 1983.
Lists of Western Electric locations were periodically published in various employee publications.
One example from 1967 is in the TCI Library ...
http://www.telephonecollectors.info/index.php/document-repository/doc_details/705-western-electric-directory-1967-facility-locations (http://www.telephonecollectors.info/index.php/document-repository/doc_details/705-western-electric-directory-1967-facility-locations)
Single Letter:
A---Atlanta
B---BOSTON
C---Chicago
K---Kansas City
N---New York
P---Philadelphia
R--Pittsburgh
S--St. Louis
H---? [Hawthorne?]
Y----?
F----? [San Francisco?]
O---? http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=17904.msg184811#msg184811 3/30/17
T----? http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=17915.msg184949#msg184949 3/31/17
Here is a tag from a 101 subset showing the single letter in combination with a number used to indicate a specific employee/tester:
Mechanical inspection was conducted by N20 and Electrical inspection was completed by N84. Does the single letter N signify a place? New York?
Quote from: Sargeguy on January 20, 2014, 09:17:54 PM
Mechanical inspection was conducted by N20 and Electrical inspection was completed by N84. Does the single letter N signify a place? New York?
I can't tell since the tag is different from the others and doesn't say Western Electric. Were any of the parts stamped "N"?
Y is stamped on this 495BP subset, probably indicating the WE Repair Shop where the conversion from a 295A was done. (Seller was in Oregon.)
Here is a new single letter one for the record: "B" for Boston
WE did not refurbish phones before 1901. Until 1901, the Bell companies ordered directly from the Western Electric factories. In 1901, a supply contract was signed between Western Electric and the Bell company in Philadelphia. The first WE Distributing House then opened in Philadelphia in 1901. By 1913, there were supply contracts with all the associated Bell companies. Here is a list of the 35 Houses as of 1964, along with the date each one was established.
DISTRIBUTING HOUSE DATE ESTAB. SINGLE 2-LETTER
Pennsylvania (formerly Philadelphia)...............1901.................P..........PA
St. Louis......................................................1902................S..........ST
Denver........................................................1903............................DN
Kansas City..................................................1903................K..........KA
San Francisco..............................................1903.............................SN
Illinois.........................................................1904................C...........IL
Cincinnati.....................................................1904
New York.....................................................1904...............N..........NY
Pittsburgh....................................................1904...............R
Atlanta.........................................................1905..............A...........AT
Indiana........................................................1906
Los Angeles.................................................1906..............................LA
Minneapolis..................................................1907.............................MD
Seattle.........................................................1908.............................SE
Boston.........................................................1908................B...........BO
Dallas...........................................................1908............................DA
Michigan.......................................................1908.............................MN
Portland.......................................................1910
Cleveland.....................................................1912..............................CD
Houston.......................................................1912..............................HU
New Orleans................................................1912...............................NO
Connecticut (formerly New Haven)...............1913.................................CN
[Supply contracts with all associated Bell companies by 1913]
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Washington..................................................1923.............................WA
Milwaukee.....................................................1924.............................MK
Long Island (formerly Brooklyn)....................1926
New Jersey (formerly Newark)......................1926................................NJ
Jacksonville...................................................1927
Syracuse.......................................................1953............................SY
Nashville.......................................................1955.............................NA
Carolinas......................................................1958..............................CA
Phoenix........................................................1958.............................PX
Miami............................................................1960............................MI
Westchester..................................................1961
Salt Lake City................................................1962
Omaha..........................................................1963...............................OA
Ref: Western Electric and the Bell System: A Survey of Service, ed. by Albert S. Iardella, 1964
Is there a complete list of all service centers somewhere? The reason I ask is I was talking with a customer at work the other day and he was asking about the B mount I have on my desk. He told me his Dad retired from Western Electric. Of course I asked right away if I could talk to him and did he have any phones? Unfortunately Dad passed a few years ago and there are no phones. But in talking further about what he did and where he told me he worked in a WE repair center in North Miami. I used to work about 2 blocks from where he said the center was located. I know the buildings in the area and there a quite a few that could house a repair center. I Googled a lot but could not come up with anything. It would be interesting to find out which building it is and try to go check it out. Maybe I can find a room full of phones that were in for repair and never got done!
EDIT:
OK, now I see from the last post Miami is listed, is there an exact address and/or pictures?
If anyone has a WE refurbished phone with a similar FORM 808GN showing location of the Repair Shop, please add it to the list of single letters.
I found this film about the Western Electric factorie in North Andover Massachusetts, I live down the street from the building, when I moved up to the Merrimack Valley from Boston, it was called Lucent Technologies, then the building sat empty for a number of years, until the town bought it and turned it into condos, stores, and office space. I have talked to a few older people who have lived in the area for many years, they say most of the town worked there during the late 40's and the 50's into the late 70's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K3cDli8KYs
Persido, I thought that was an interesting video, I recall seeing that before.
It is interesting they built condos into it, I'd like to see how they did it. Though, from the comments on the video, it makes it seem the like Valley is sort of run down, these days.
Ben
The Merrimack Valley has several towns and city's in it, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lowell are the city's, and yes they are run down with lower incomes, the towns of Andover, North Andover, Boxford, Tewksbury and a bunch more are the towns in the Valley they are nothing like the city's, more middle and upper incomes.
It's a nice place to live. I'm 21 miles north of Boston and 3 miles from the New Hampshire line :) tax free New Hampshire :) most of my telephone finds have been in New Hampshire.
Scot
Great vintage film.
Before I realized I was a phone collector, we went to a couple of the annual employee yard sales in the parking lot of that facility.
I remember buying a quartz crystal made there from an old gentleman who told me in (at the time) excessive detail about how he and his team made them. I wish I could remember the entire story now. Whe knows what other phone treasures I walked past in those days.
A few years ago, a neighbor got a job with a start up that was in a corner of the building. i took a quick tour, but was too late to see anything interesting except the walls. He did eventually uncover one of the phones left behind by Lucent, but it was a common 2500 set.
K=Kansas City
Here's a good one CHICAGO!!!:
Single letter F indicates which WE repair shop?
Seller is in Crescent City, CA
M = Minneapolis Repair Shop (Western Electric Distributing House):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Western-Electric-Wall-Phone-228-W-Original-Schematics-Parts-Project/152878140902
Hi Guys,
Here is a Western Electric tested sticker in my #22 top box with the Letter A for Atlanta.
Regards,
Bob Farber
Quote from: poplar1 on January 20, 2014, 08:38:50 PM
Single Letter:
A---Atlanta
B---BOSTON
C---Chicago
K---Kansas City
N---New York
P---Philadelphia
R--Pittsburgh
S--St. Louis
H---? [Hawthorne?]
Y----?
F----? [San Francisco?]
O---? http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=17904.msg184811#msg184811 3/30/17
T----? http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=17915.msg184949#msg184949 3/31/17
V = Nashville
O= Omaha
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Authentic-Western-Electric-Telephone-Signed-Dated-1919/224071434610
The video was great.
D/P
Can someone post the relevant photo (closeup of the 1919 signed sticker)? Can't figure out how to do it from a cell phobe.
Quote from: poplar1 on July 07, 2020, 09:02:03 PM
Can someone post the relevant photo (closeup of the 1919 signed sticker)? Can't figure out how to do it from a cell phobe.
Thank you, Paul.
Conirmation that "F" is for San Francisco:
Sometmes, you will see a single letter in a box on a part that was remanufactured at one of the Western Electric Repair Shops.
Screenshot 2022-07-20 12.10.36 AM.png
https://www.ebay.com/itm/265787365976?
Cropped, rotated and slightly enlarged for reference: