Phone Home

Pay phones are quickly becoming a thing of the past-- recent, ancient history. In the era before cell phones, these public phones were found in every high traffic area. Pay phones have an interesting history, "In 1889, the first public coin telephone was invented by William Gray and installed at a bank in Hartford, Connecticut. The invention quickly caught on and by 1902, there were 81,000 pay phones in the United States" (reference here). Pay phone stations, where a person mediated the call, predated the stand-alone phones and the phone booths. Wonder how many pay phones are in the US and in Greensboro today? London has always been famous for its phone booths..... As we enter this holiday season, we encourage to pick up a phone and call those people who have touched your life.

If you are in Greensboro? Can you guess the location of this phone? Click here to see if you are right! When you click through the location will make perfect sense.

Comments

[B^2]

I remember those.

[Jane Mitchell]

O tempora o mores!

[Halcyon]

I don't live in Greensboro, but I'm guessing this is outside a bar? Must be someplace where people need to phone!

[leif hagen]

An old relic! Looks like the vandals liked using their spray cans on it, too!

[Louis la Vache]

Indeed, payphones are rapidly becoming a thing of the past - and newspapers aren't far behind them!