atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems 1A2 and Comkey Telephones & Systems Exchanges?

Anybody remember the old exchanges? Like when I was a kid our number was TW1nbrook 3123 today would be 891-3123 NY had FARnsworth 4124 or 327-4124. Just bored and curious especially about some of the none North American stuff.
Have Fun,
John

We have so many split "exchange" codes in this area that they really don't mean much of anything anymore. I will say that Verizon maintains ownership of most of the legacy exchange codes, but even some of their newer ones are shared in 1,000 number blocks with cell, CLEC, and CATV providers. The days of 10,000 numbers belonging to one service provider are pretty much gone now that number portability has come along.

Our predominant legacy exchange codes here in Fredericksburg, VA were ES1 (ESsex) and ES3, as in 371 and 373. I'm not sure what the 'Essex' thing is all about, since it has no significance to this area. It translates to 'FRedericksburg' to me. It has now morphed into 370, 371, 372, 373, 374, 376 and 379, along with 220, 226, 310, 412, 419, 479, 548, 654, 710,.......... It goes on and on and on to dozens more to numerous to count.

At least they are all still tied to a geographical rate center, so we have some clue as to where their home base is.

When I was a kid, we had the AMherst CO, i.e. AM5, AM6, and AM7. Still to this day, my lovely 87 year old mother will tell anyone who asks the local time and temperature phone number is "AM5-1411", still in operation today.

My mom grew up in Somerville Massachusetts. Her family's telephone number was MIssion 5-2754. I'm not sure how that worked because the numerical number was 625-2754. Another exchange was PRospect. These are the names of two of the hills within the city of Somerville. The Bell System CO is located on Central Street


Here in Arlington, I think the exchange was called PLeasant....1,3,6 & 8.

Pleasant is the name of the street that the Bell System CO is located on. The address is 67 Pleasant Street Arlington MA 02476.

From the Dallas, Texas area

Madison
Central
Harwood
Winfield
Justin
Logan
Tremont
Taylor
Yale
Lakeside
Dixon
Union
Tennison
Fairdale
Riverside
Wright
Riverside: RI, (74) All downtown Dallas exchanges; I. E. RI7-1158 or today's number without Area Code would 747-1158, or even earlier R-1158.
Emerson: EM, (36) North Dallas
Taylor: TA, (82) Hall Street; Mockingbird, East Dallas, "Goss On Ross," What became of this fella?
Congress: CO, (26) Carrollton, Farmers Branch, NW Dallas
Cochran: CH (24) Carrolltton, Farmers Branch, NW Dallas
Addison: AD (23) Addison and nearby areas of Dallas
Fleetwood: FL (35) Bachman and North
?, BR: (27) Garland, NE Dallas (Broadway)
?: WH, (94) Oak Cliff (Whitehall)
?: LA, (52) Oak Lawn/ Park Cities

The Franklin Office is located at 2007 Ann Arbor next to Veterans Hospital.

Duncanville has the AXial Office, AX8.

There is a HAmilton Office in South Dallas I think.

The TAylor office is on Bryan Street across from the Toll Office at 4100 Bryan.

Pleasant Grove has the Emerson Office or the EXpress Office or both.

The Evergreen Office is on Military Parkway out by Parkdale and Urbandale.

Lakeside Office is in Oaklawn at Blackburn St.

FLeetwood Office serves the Love Field Area.

WHitehall Office is at Zang and 10th st.

There is also an exchange on Danieldale at I-35.



From: https://phorum.dallashistory.org/read.php?2,68118,68120

I remember working in the Statler Hilton in the '70s. Earlier (and later on) their name was the Pennsylvania.

The main number was PEnnsylvania 6-5000 (for the young 'uns - google Glenn Miller)

We had a lot of named exchanges when I was a kid in NYC. CLoverdale, NIghtingale, SHeepshead, DEwey, YUkon.....just the first couple that come to mind.

Rotary dials could be ordered as Metropolitan or....Standard (?) - With or without letters on the dial. When we did pax boards we ordered the phones without the letters.

Sam

The CO by my house is called Terrace, some of the phone numbers here start with 831.

Various other exchanges in Cleveland are Montrose (662), Hillcrest (442, 446) Yellowstone (932), Evergreen (381, 382).

When I was a kid in a rural town outside of Wichita Kansas, we had a 4 digit number (4291). Within the small exchange, we dialed 4 digits to reach another party. If we wanted to call outside of our exchange we dialed "central" who would connect us to either another exchange or Long Distance. If, say we wanted to talk to Aunt Sally in LA, we would tell central to connect us to Regent 6-2234 in LA, and we would hang up and in 10 or 15 minutes, she would call us back and Sally would be on the line. Central was on a cord board and LD calls went manually from cord board to cord board all the way to LA.
Really made me mad when in '56 or '57 they forced us into 7 digit dialing. We could call anyone in the very large metro Wichita exchange. Central was no more.

I grew up with 7 digit dialing, but our dial cards were still printed OLympia 8-xxxx (658-xxxx) and grandparents were POrter 2-xxxx (762-xxxx) as I recall, the Exchange was on one line with the 5 digits below.
In the late 60's or early 70's they shifted us over to a new 478 number with no exchange name attached.

When I was a kid we also had 4 digit numbers and no dial. You picked up the phone and told the operator what number you wanted. And we are just maybe 50 miles north of NYC. Then one day Bell came around and installed dials. Our CO was and still is in Pleasantville so our new number was PL-2-xxxx. Then they went to DTMF and the numbers changed again to ROgers-9-xxxx. When the letters disappeared 769 is in use today.

-Hal