1957 WE 500

[DARK FATHER]

Found this beauty at the local flea market from a seller I frequently do business with.  I even got the history of it from him.  It belonged to a VERY elderly couple that both lived to be in their mid 90s.  This was the ONLY phone that they had since the 1950s!  When they died, he cleaned out their house and got this.  It was so outdated that it had no modular plug, NOR a 4 prong plug!  It only had the four wires with metal connections.  I hooked it up to a wall modular plug, and we use it daily on my kitchen table.

http://imageshack.com/a/img923/3163/NUiTEx.jpg

[Pourme]

How unique to find a one owner original, fresh off the farm. The previous owners, I'm sure would be proud you found it and are using it!

Good find!
Benny

[andre_janew]

I've never seen one with a dial face like that!

[HarrySmith]

I've never seen one with a dial face like that!

That is an advertising piece, just slips on.

[AL_as_needed]

Do you plan on cleaning it up or leaving it as found?  The two phones I have gotten the history of with the phone I tend to leave in the rough (besides cleaning off the grime) as it's part of its story.

[DARK FATHER]

Do you plan on cleaning it up or leaving it as found?  The two phones I have gotten the history of with the phone I tend to leave in the rough (besides cleaning off the grime) as it's part of its story.

Have left it as-is!

[jsowers]

The RCA logo on that dial advertising piece dates to 1968 or earlier. There are very few hard-wired phones that old out there left with the original owners. You really have to resist change to keep the same phone for 60 years.

My mom is 88 and has lived in the same house since 1953, but not with the same phone. Even my uncle who kept the same lineoleum floor in his kitchen for 58 years didn't have the same phone hooked up that he had in 1957. But he did have it on a shelf in the basement, and now I have it. A black party line AE40. The only phone from my childhood that I own. I've left the 40 years of basement dust on it and it may just stay that way. Sometimes originality is a good thing.

[andre_janew]

I'd say it'd be much earlier than 1968.  Did you notice the Z next to the operator?  For all I know, it could be older than the phone!