North H-Series Leich Conversion Phone in White

[LarryInMichigan]

I received this ebay link yesterday.  This phone started life as a 1947 North Electric H-series, and some time later it was modernized with a new shell, handset, and cords, something like a WE5302.  I already had one of these in black and one in beige.  They don't seem to appear in white very often at all.  The dial bezel is tenite, but the rest of the plastic parts are ABS.  There is some discoloration, and the shell has plenty of scratches and scrapes as well as some gouges on one side.  The ringer is a 16 2/3cy frequency ringer, but it rings on my phone line if the gongs are close enough to the clapper.  The clappers on these ringers are not movable, so I may try to cut some of the brass off the end to increase the ringer's resonant frequency.

Larry

[Doug Rose]

Very nice Larry....Doug

[HarrySmith]

Very Cool! I had no Idea they made "5302" model. Nice find.

[LarryInMichigan]

Paul F has some interesting information about these on his very helpful website: http://paul-f.com/Leich_7H6.html.  I assume that Leich marketed these to telcos who had installed Norths and wanted to give their subscribers more "modern" looking phones.  I believe that Leich was already making AE80s for AE at the time they made these conversion kits.

Larry

[andre_janew]

According to the website, sometimes a WE302 would get converted to a Liech 7H6 phone.

[LarryInMichigan]

I managed to clean up the phone, remove some of the discoloration and some of the deep scratches, and polish it a bit.  I found a dial center card and acetate cover in my small spare parts collection.  The phone is working on my desk now.  The 16 13/cy ringer works well after a minor adjustment.  The dial bezel is tenite, but the rest of the plastic parts are ABS.  Here are a couple of "after' pictures of it and pictures of my collection of three North/Leich conversion phones.


Larry

[unbeldi]

I do like the number card on it too.  From Hickory NC.

[Pourme]

Hickory was a independent, my Mother N Law was a operator there for 42 years. You find a lot of nin WE phones in collectible shops around here... Here is a SC from the Hickory Centel office...

I'd like to find one of those Leich phones around here!

[unbeldi]

Hickory was a independent, my Mother N Law was a operator there for 42 years. You find a lot of nin WE phones in collectible shops around here... Here is a SC from the Hickory Centel office...

I'd like to find one of those Leich phones around here!

Are you sure that is from Hickory ?
I think it may be from Granite Falls, close by for sure.


PS:  Did some more research...   Granite Falls is today just a remote concentrator, there doesn't seem to be a central office anymore, but I don't know since when this is.  In the 1950s, Granite Falls was EXport 6, matching your card.  Hickory was DAvis, matching Larry's card, and Hickory still has a central office today, run by CenturyLink.  So, perhaps Granite Falls is a tributary to Hickory and was managed by Hickory personnel.
Any ideas?

[LarryInMichigan]

That dial center card did not come with this phone.  It think that it was part of an assortment of phone parts that I bought a while back.  I thought that it looked reasonable on this phone.  The phone came from a seller in upstate NY.

Part of the NW side of Chicago and some of the north and NW suburbs were served by Centel back in the day.  Milwaukee Ave. was the dividing line between Illinois Bell and Centel near where I lived.  Making calls from my home in Bell territory a couple of miles to the west to Centel customers was often a challenge.  I sometimes had to redial several times before the call would connect.  This was around 1980.

Larry

[unbeldi]

That dial center card did not come with this phone.  It think that it was part of an assortment of phone parts that I bought a while back.  I thought that it looked reasonable on this phone.  The phone came from a seller in upstate NY.

Part of the NW side of Chicago and some of the north and NW suburbs were served by Centel back in the day.  Milwaukee Ave. was the dividing line between Illinois Bell and Centel near where I lived.  Making calls from my home in Bell territory a couple of miles to the west to Centel customers was often a challenge.  I sometimes had to redial several times before the call would connect.  This was around 1980.

Larry

Seems reasonable, indeed.  Upstate NY also had a lot of independents.

[Pourme]

Good catch. You are correct. The 396 prefix is a Granite Falls exchange. That phone was installed in this house in 1978. Granite Falls was serviced from Hickory. As far as I know there was not a office here.

[LarryInMichigan]

There is another one of these phones for sale by the same seller for a reasonable price: http://www.ebay.com/itm/132034239488.

Larry