Detroit Souveniers....of sorts.....

**Ray1936** · May-12-21, 05:10 PM

A few years back, I was able to buy an old Gamewell Police Call box from a friend back in Detroit. in the first 2/3rds of the 20th century, these were critical to the Detroit Police Department of communication with both beat officers and patrol cars, even after the advent of two-way radio. Anyway, I restored it, and it sits in my garage here in Henderson, Nevada, nearly 2k away from where it must have sat for decades.

The telegraph unit was much like a fire alarm pull box, which tripped a relay and sent a numbered signal to the precinct station it was in. Beat officers and patrol cars alike had to call in hourly, and "pull" the handle so the operator knew what location they were calling from.

With the advent of 2-way portable radios in the mid-60's, the Gamewell call boxes begin to find there way out. By the mid seventies, the Public Lighting Commission, which had maintained the call box system for decades, started pulling them out of service. They were all taken to the main PLC garage at W. Warren and Lawton, where most were sold for scrap save for a small percentages of old time police officers who scoffed up one for memories. I was one such.

To a beat officer with no radio back in the day, they were a life line.

[ATTACH]41463

**Ray1936** · May-12-21, 05:12 PM

[[Disregard the cordless phone in the photo. That's just connected to my land line. LOL!)

**jiminnm** · May-13-21, 11:47 AM

We don't have a police call box, but we do have identical Panasonic cordless phones.

**Lowell** · May-14-21, 08:21 AM

Cordless phones have to be joining the ranks of the collectibles before long.

**jiminnm** · May-14-21, 12:49 PM

Originally Posted by Lowell

Cordless phones have to be joining the ranks of the collectibles before long.

Not where I live. Cell service at our house is far less than reliable due to a lot of hills and mesas. Our home alarm is also connected to our landline.

We do have Comcast internet service, but a couple of our neighbors with Comcast phone service come over to use our phone from time to time because their service is out. Hard to imagine, but our land line is more reliable than Comcast.

**bust** · May-14-21, 06:42 PM

Originally Posted by jiminnm

Hard to imagine, but our land line is more reliable than Comcast.

Not hard to imagine at all!

Time Warner cable internet, and later Verizon fiber internet, were so unreliable where I lived {especially Time Warner} I had to maintain my land line -- only in case of an emergency.

Not only never did it suffer all the problems of the newer technologies {especially Time Warner, did I say that?}, it works during power outages too.

**bust** · May-14-21, 06:44 PM

Ray, every here and there you can find cast iron boxes about the same size and shape propped on a cast iron column near the curb on a sidewalk in historic Brooklyn neighborhoods. By their looks I'd guess they could be a century old, or more, and they're not used any more. Could they be call boxes like yours?

**Ray1936** · May-14-21, 06:50 PM

Originally Posted by bust

Ray, every here and there you can find cast iron boxes about the same size and shape propped on a cast iron column near the curb on a sidewalk in historic Brooklyn neighborhoods. By their looks I'd guess they could be a century old, or more, and they're not used any more. Could they be call boxes like yours?

Could be: got a photo? If they are, scoff them up. They go on ebay for four, five hundred bucks a crack.

**bust** · May-14-21, 07:00 PM

I wish I could. I don't live there anymore.

I thought they may have been to call the police and/or fire department, from the days way before we had cell phones {long before I was born}.

**pjbear05** · May-18-21, 11:52 AM

As an Animal Control Officer [[mid 70's-mid80's), I had access to the police phone boxes, and would have the precinct connect us for "pulls" with our HQ [[the old Dog Pound on W. Jefferson &amp; 24th).

**Ray1936** · May-18-21, 01:34 PM

Originally Posted by pjbear05

As an Animal Control Officer [[mid 70's-mid80's), I had access to the police phone boxes, and would have the precinct connect us for "pulls" with our HQ [[the old Dog Pound on W. Jefferson &amp; 24th).

Knew it well. For a while during the time I worked the Motorcycle Traffic Bureau, in winter we really had to scrounge for cars. Quite a few had radios for the dog pound. Dog pound dispatch loved request for traffic warrants that we called in. Good memories......thanks for that brain tug!!!

**pjbear05** · May-18-21, 02:19 PM

Originally Posted by Ray1936

Knew it well. For a while during the time I worked the Motorcycle Traffic Bureau, in winter we really had to scrounge for cars. Quite a few had radios for the dog pound. Dog pound dispatch loved request for traffic warrants that we called in. Good memories......thanks for that brain tug!!!

For sure. Our radios were tied into the frequency band DPD used to dispatch call to their units. Using a "repeater" system, we transmitted on 458.275 Mhz, and received on 453.275 Mhz. We shared the frequency with Wayne County Air Pollution Control, and would recieve calls to their enforcment officers, most of them to the three scourges of Southwest Detroit-Great Lakes Steel, Solvay process, and Wayne Soap.