I don't know the name of my former phone exchange...

[SMRJim]

What a fun thread idea!

My old home phone was DRexel 1-6270

Our store phone was LA 7-8687. Would that have been LAkeview?

It's funny because our house and store weren't that far apart, maybe 6 blocks or so. Gratiot & Conner area of the eastside...

Nah, plenty of areas had more than one letter prefix. Ours had VErmont [[835 thru 838) and BRoadway [[272 and 273). I think BR was Broadway. We had to change our number because we had a crank caller who wouldn't stop calling, our number went from VE6-8616 to BR3-7432.

[MikeM]

True, most central offices had more than one exchange name [[VErmont & BRoadway), but in Maxine's case, DRexel was wired to the Lenox office on Kercheval at St Jean, while LAkeview was wired to the Pingree office on Schoenherr at Greiner [[6 Mile & Gratiot). Must have been right on the boundary.

[kathy2trips]

TUxedo1-1762. East English Village. First telephone number I ever learned. My first job was WAlnut 5-9200, around East Forest, near Van Dyke.

[kathy2trips]

I want to say it was in the 1970s that the exchanges became straight numbers. Maybe that's when people started graduating from school without knowing their letters!

[MikeM]

It was the late 1970s when the last phone books were printed with exchange prefix letters, although it varied from company to company. I don't know when Michigan Bell quit the practice. In the sixties, as new exchanges were introduced, including ones that had unpronounceable letter combinations, phone books were printed with a combination of lettered and non-lettered exchange prefixes.

[Fury13]

VAlley 4-8869.

Detroit 14, Michigan.

[reddog289]

Thanks for the info on the switch from letter exchanges to numbers. My girlfriend can remember the letters, Which were all down river. Aside from the house number and my uncles, The one number that sticks in my mind is TY8-7100.

[dtowncitylover]

I know that up here in Royal Oak it was LIncoln-7.

[reddog289]

While in that area for the dream cruise or something, I recall seeing a drug store with the LI exchange on the sign.

[MikeM]

Then I transferred to the office on Kelly Rd near Eastland, and we handled WAlnut, LAkeview.

Grumpy, I think I asked you before, but where on Kelly was this office? On the Detroit side, or HW side? Was it an office with operators, or just a bill payment center?


Any really old-timers have one of the following?

DIxon
MElrose
FItzroy
ARlington
PRospect
OLive
IVanhoe
OLdham
SLocum

[grumpyoldlady]

The office was NOT a bill paying center at all. The upper floor was totally service representatives who took phone service orders for new installations, moves, number changes, equipment changes, etc. Must have been about 30 girls working the SR desks and there were about a dozen of us Service Order Typists using teletype machines to make punched teletype tape of the orders to send by another machine to the service center for filling. I believe the first floor was primarily what was called "frame" switching equipment, but there may have been some SR reps for some other exchanges down there. We had a small lounge with a few telephones where we could make all the calls we wanted...long distance included. The building is/was located on the east side of Kelly, north of Moross...I think it was fairly close to State Fair...can't really remember that. Two story light brown brick building with parking lot in the rear.

[MikeM]

Attachment 3781


Thanks Grumpy, I found it: 19992 Kelly. I see it was once called the Valley district office. It's no longer used by the phone company. What years were you there?

[kathy2trips]

Grumpy, I think I asked you before, but where on Kelly was this office? On the Detroit side, or HW side? Was it an office with operators, or just a bill payment center?


Any really old-timers have one of the following?

DIxon
MElrose
FItzroy
ARlington
PRospect
OLive
IVanhoe
OLdham
SLocum

We had SL [[751) when I lived in Warren. And I'm not old...yet.

For more time consuming fun, try checking out the Polk's Detroit City Directory from 1922 for the display ads, which accompany a lot of the entries [[but not every one had a phone in '22), as well as the display ads.

This link will take you to the index and you can go to the page you want from there: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text...ew=image&seq=7

[MikeM]

Thanks Kathy. I forgot that SLocum was the Center Line [[and south Warren) office code.

[kathy2trips]

We lived off 12 Mile Road and Hoover. I remember PR being PRescott. Some of my relatives in St. Clair Shores had that one, I think.

[MikeM]

Northern Warren and Sterling Twp were COngress
St Clair Shores, Roseville, East Detroit, and Fraser were PRescott
The Woodward corridor up to Birmingham was LIncoln and JUniper
Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills were MIdwest
Southfield was ELgin
Farmington was GReenleaf
Franklin and West Bloomfield were MAyfair
Livonia and Garden City were GArfield
Wayne was PArkway
Romulus was WHitney
Wyandotte, Riverview, and Southgate were AVenue
Trenton, Gibraltar, and Grosse Isle were ORleans

[NewportNic]

A little further south...
Flat Rock - STerling
Carleton - OLiver
Monroe - CHerry
Rockwood - DRake

[Fury13]

OLive was in the Rochester area.

[Margarite]

TEmple 1-4907
Detroit 7, Mich

[MikeM]

Thanks Fury, I found this earlier today: Places you could dial direct from Detroit in April, 1955.

Attachment 3923

[reddog289]

MikeM,tHANKS

[reddog289]

As I saying before the cat jumped on the keyboard, Thanks Mike for setting me straight on the suburban exchanges. PArkway was the exchange I used for my uncles, not parkside.

[sumas]

We were a tuxedo exchange. My mom still has the same number she had from 1947. Moved once and took the number with us. A neighbor who moved away long ago was in town. My little brother couldn't seem to remember our phone number and mom made up a little ditty to help him . The former neighbor remembered that stupid little song and got hold of my Mom. They had a nice visit as a result. Oh yes, we still have those old fashion phones in the house on two levels. Those cord phone circa the late fifties still work great. We have cordless phones in the house cause I like to roam when I talk. Seems like we have to replace those every few years.

[sumas]

Erie, so totally know what you mean about getting real people when you make a business call. I almost fall off my chair if I get through to a real human voice on the first try.

[turkeycall]

There's a lot of interesting history surrounding the telephone exchanges. I've enjoyed reading all of the posts.

My cousins lived "up north" in the thumb, just south and west of Croswell. Their telephone number was "Croswell 697J2." They had a desk-type telephone in the front parlor but the thing had no dial on it. You picked up the receiver, waited just a few moments, then the operator would ask what number you wanted. They had that number well into the 60s.

About the drug store that was mentioned: I believe that was Lincoln Drugs. Their phone number was LIncoln D-R-U-G-S.

I remeber a time when, if you wanted to call someone long-distance, you had to dial "0" and tell the operator the city and number, and if you wanted to "reverse the charges."

Now, who can remember when area codes came into being?

Also, does anyone remember when, in grade school, maybe in the third, fourth, or fifth grade, you received a short lesson in "telephone courtesy?" Maybe it was Michigan Bell, but someone provided two telephones for classroom use. We practiced how to make a phone call, introducing ourselves when the person answered, then asking for a particular person to talk to. "Please" and "Thank-you" were musts. It was a short lesson in civility which I remember to this day. I now think it is so rude that person calls my home phone and says, "Is Bob there?" Well, who wants to know?