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A tiny slice of the 1980s right on Dartmouth Street
By adamg on Sat, 04/22/2023 - 12:25pm
Right in front of the Eastern Bank/garage on Dartmouth Street at Stuart Street is this large ad thinge that has two payphones built in. And at least as of yesterday, both generated dial tones when you picked up the receivers.
As always, talking to God - and Bank of America - is free:
Earlier:
In 1965, Bostonians downtown lined up at phone booths to call home when the power went out.
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There is one or two in Downtown Crossing on Washington St. And one on Summer St, perhaps before you leave the pedestrian only area. I don't recall exactly.
Coin operation
Your timescale is way off, Adam.
Try research instead of faulty human memory.
I was using payphones and voicemail into the 2000s and later until it became untenable.
Why spend more than the $5 necessary per month with a home phone and a work phone each with voice-mail?
TELECOMS DESERVE LOSSES TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT POSSIBLE!
FUCK 'EM. CRASH YOUR SUV INTO THE DOOR OF A SWITCHING BUILDING TODAY!
MAKE SURE YOU WEAR YOUR HELMET.
Granted, I needed a working knowledge of the phones in my frequent locations, but the Internet had at least one payphone finder site.
I was more into finding rotary payphones in the early 90s. Now those were uncommon.
By law transit stations with interstate connections must have working payphones.
2600 4EVER!
Well ...
Yeah, I realize payphones lasted well past the 1980s (and as you can see on Dartmouth Street, they're still around), but I was trying to think of a period when pretty much everybody still used them.
And for what it's worth, we still have a working rotary phone - an old Western Electric model that could double as a weapon against a burglar - mounted on our kitchen wall. But I realize most people don't have them - or landlines at all - any more.
Old episodes of Law & Order
I love watching old episodes of Law & Order where the detectives need to find a payphone to call in to the office. When I went through chemo years ago, I binge watched and got a kick from seeing the evolution from pay phones to huge clunky mobile phones, from no computers to one for the station to standard equipment.
What law is this? Should
What law is this? Should there be a pay phone at every commuter rail station on the Providence Line since you can board trains to Rhode Island? What about interstate buses that stop at the side of the road?
Summer and Arch
I used it a few years ago. Someone OD'd and passed out on the street, and I had forgotten my phone that day.
Turns out it is quicker to use the payphone for 911 since they don't have to spend a minute figuring out where you are.
Be Careful!
Those are for Neo and Trinity!
As always,
no one cares about poor Switch.
Street furniture
These particular pay phones, with the advertising kiosks, were part of a much-hyped street furniture project during the Menino administration. The same project included those big oval, coin-operated public toilets, plus bus shelters and kiosks that just had advertising plus a map of the nearby area. I also saw one like a newsstand, with a half dozen (empty) newspaper vending machines,
I believe the original installation was by a company named Wall, which later was taken over by their major competitor in the original bidding process, I think it was JCDecaux. Or maybe it was the other way around.
Until about a year ago, there was one of the pay phone kiosks at the corner of School and Washington. Another was at the head of Long Wharf, near the cruise ticket office; it may still be there.
Verizon dropped out of the pay phone business years ago, and other companies took it over. I'm surprised that anyone is still maintaining them (and collecting what few quarters come in).
Before cell phones were de rigueur, I knew the location of just about every pay phone in many parts of the city. My work required it.
Subsidy
I think these companies get a subsidy to keep them alive for "public safety purposes".
Regardless, this was a turn key business when they bought these from Verizon. All they had to do is keep the POTS lines to them paid for and active. Considering that a basic POTS line now (if you can even get them) is about 14 bucks a month, you'd only need 7 calls placed from each phone (for approx 1 dollar each) to break even. (and I am sure with contracts and such, they aren't paying 14/mo per line, it's significantly less and most likely a 'metered' service, where they are only charged if a call is placed).
I'd also wager this is why we see less and less of them. I haven't seen a new pay phone in decades (like new, out of the box), I'd like to think as these devices die out in the wilds, they aren't being replaced and just being removed. Which is why they are slowly disappearing.