Call boxes, Fire Alarm Boxes, and the Public Lighting Commission.

Back about the time of the end of the Civil War [[the one from the 1860's, not the one going on now), fellow by the name of James Gamewell had an idea of setting up telegraph boxes on street corners in major cities to alarm fire departments, and for telegraph stations to allow police beat officers to be in contact with their headquarters.

It caught on quickly, and nationally. Gamewell started in New Haven, CT, and later moved to NYC, and later back to Massachusets. His principle was really simple: an electric current that would be initiated by a number wheel to post a number on a paper tape at the receiving station. With fire boxes, the fire department would respond to the location; with police boxes, a telephone handset was added for conversation between the station house and the beat officer.

For well over a hundred years, these fire and police boxes were the mainstay of communication, and they survived for the most part well into the 1970's, when portable radio took over for the police boxes, and 1990's for fire alarm boxes when everyone started carrying cell phones.

In my early days in the DPD, the call boxes were my connection to the station while walking a beat [[had no radios back in 1959). Anyway, by the mid 1970's, the boxes began to be removed by the Detroit Public Lighting Commission, who had maintained them for well over 100 years. Ditto for fire alarm boxes a few years later

I think in it's heyday, with 15 police precincts, and each precinct having at least 100 call boxes in its area, there were abut 1,500 Gamewell call boxes scattered about the city.

Not long ago, I made a connection with a soul who had an old Detroit Police call box for sale, and I grabbed it. Today it sits in my garage, and so often I just sit and stare at it, and bring back a flood of memories.

Forgive this old fart for rambling. :)
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my dad had one of the old fire boxes in his basement that he started removing the paint from to refinish. it's probably still there [[along with an incredible amount of other "stuff").

as a gift one year, i gave him a telephone - one of those old landline types - that was inserted in a fake fire box. think that's still in his house also.

Thanks for illuminating this neat Detroit history. I wonder if there are any of these still installed in their original locations, like a few of the old pay phones are still in place at random places around the city.

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Originally Posted by masterblaster

Thanks for illuminating this neat Detroit history. I wonder if there are any of these still installed in their original locations, like a few of the old pay phones are still in place at random places around the city.

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I'm pretty sure they're all gone.....but if anyone spots one remaining, give a holler!

Third thread on this ... at least.

Last I knew there were still some fire boxes in hospitals, schools and other public buildings as part of their internal systems. Unlikely that any call boxes have survived though.