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

[MikeM]

Area Codes were implemented in the late 1940's although the concept was developed around 1930. In the first proposed plan for codes, eastern Michigan would have been 217 instead of 313.

From a 1961 phone book:

Attachment 3962

[bobby wobby]

Vermont was also at the West Chicago and Patton area

[philm]

DIamond 1-9944
was changed sometime in the 50's to DIamond 1-4619 because we kept getting calls for some business with a similar number

[shovelhead]

GReenleaf=Farmington
FIeldbrook=Northville/Novi/Salem
MArket=Walled Lake
GLenview=Plymouth
ACademy=Brighton
NOrmandy=Ann Arbor
FEderal=Pontiac
MAyfair=West Bloomfield
GEneva=South Lyon
PArkway=Wayne/Westland
CRestwood=Dearborn Heights

All I can remember for now of suburban exchanges
I was GReenleaf until 1970, then became 522 in Westland

[Sec106]

WE-54681 and we had a party line when I was little. That was the best to pick up carefully and eavesdrop until the heard you and yelled. Lived at Santa Rosa and Fullerton.

[barb48207]

Mine was Townsend 92212

[jehmsu]

LAkeview 1-2034. Wilshire, between Conner and Gunston

[Maxine1958]

LAkeview 1-2034. Wilshire, between Conner and Gunston

Hey Neighbor, my parents owned the drug store on the corner of Gratiot and Connor. Do you remember it?

[lovnlife]

...The one number that sticks in my mind is TY8-7100.

The Belvedere Construction commercial jingle: "just dial TYler 8 seh ven one oh oh for a home improvement date." I can still hear the music in my head.

One of my grandmothers lived in the Dexter/Davison area and her exchange was TYler, the other lived near Fenkell/Livernois and I think it was WEbster.

[Fury13]

A question for the experts: when did the JUniper exchange in Oakland County start up? It's in eastern Royal Oak and Madison Heights.

[MikeM]

Sometime between late 1955 and early 1959.

[Fury13]

Sometime between late 1955 and early 1959.

Thanks. That's about the time those areas were more extensively developed, so I guess they created a new exchange rather than stretch the existing LIncoln prefix. Do you know if JU3 was part of the early mix, or was it just JU8 and JU9?

[EastsideQT]

My phone number was VA [[Valley)4-5943 Detroit 15, Michigan. The other eastside exchanges were WA [[walnut) and ED [[edgewater).

[MikeM]

Thanks. That's about the time those areas were more extensively developed, so I guess they created a new exchange rather than stretch the existing LIncoln prefix. Do you know if JU3 was part of the early mix, or was it just JU8 and JU9?

A new exchange could be created by adding a new switching machine to an existing office with the same name but a different third digit, or by giving it a different name altoghether. The area it serves could overlap with exisitng exchanges. Each exchange is a separate switching machine capable of serving 9,000-10,000 lines.

LI1 & LI2 were put in service around 1941, LI3 & LI4 in 1949 [[replacing the largest remaining manual switchboard in the state), and the rest came later. In this case, the JUniper exchange was not in the Royal Oak central office like LIncoln was, but in a new office in southern Troy, on Rochester Rd between 14 & 15, built to serve the growth between Royal Oak and Troy/Rochester.

I don't have much information to go on for this time period, just some phone books from the era and an occasional magazine article. Only JU8 appeared in the 1959 and 1961 directories, but by 1967 JU9, 583 and 585 were in operation. During the sixties the phone company was trying to get the public familiarized with all number calling by printing a mix of phone numers in each directory - some with all numbers and others in the old two-letter, five-number format. Some JUniper numbers are printed as JU8- and others as 588-. I don't know their rationale; it might be that newer subscribers were listed as all numbers, while earlier ones were listed with their original JU prefix.

[Fury13]

A new exchange could be created by adding a new switching machine to an existing office with the same name but a different third digit, or by giving it a different name altoghether. The area it serves could overlap with exisitng exchanges. Each exchange is a separate switching machine capable of serving 9,000-10,000 lines.

LI1 & LI2 were put in service around 1941, LI3 & LI4 in 1949 [[replacing the largest remaining manual switchboard in the state), and the rest came later. In this case, the JUniper exchange was not in the Royal Oak central office like LIncoln was, but in a new office in southern Troy, on Rochester Rd between 14 & 15, built to serve the growth between Royal Oak and Troy/Rochester.

I don't have much information to go on for this time period, just some phone books from the era and an occasional magazine article. Only JU8 appeared in the 1959 and 1961 directories, but by 1967 JU9, 583 and 585 were in operation. During the sixties the phone company was trying to get the public familiarized with all number calling by printing a mix of phone numers in each directory - some with all numbers and others in the old two-letter, five-number format. Some JUniper numbers are printed as JU8- and others as 588-. I don't know their rationale; it might be that newer subscribers were listed as all numbers, while earlier ones were listed with their original JU prefix.

Great info, Mike. Thanks.

[jehmsu]

Hey Neighbor, my parents owned the drug store on the corner of Gratiot and Connor. Do you remember it?

Sure, Heyn's Drugs. I remember going in there as a kid in the late 50s, early 60s around the time the Airport Hotel across Gratiot and St. David High were being built. My folks considered building a new house in 1960 on the lot at the corner of Wilshire and Gunston [[the lot was never built) but ended up building in St. Clair Shores instead.

[WaCoTS]

GArfield, here.
Even back when we were still in the 313 area code.

About to move into the ORegon in a month or so.


The old time service was served from the Madison central office on Bethune St....if you called in it was an open circuit for the whole city, and supposedly you could hear other parties connected to it.

One of my buddies said it was a good way to pick up girls in the '70s, lol...

[Meddle]

Until not too long ago, all area codes had either a 1 or a 0 as the middle digit. Exchanges [[the first three digits of the phone number) could NOT have a 1 or a 0 as the middle digit. That was how the systems recognized area codes from exchanges and was a fraud fighting tool for a while. If someone gave you a phone number of 819-2345, you knew it was a fake.

With the proliferation of modems, fax machines, pagers and cell phones it became clear they were fast running out of phone numbers using that plan and had to alter the system. Families that always had one number per household shared among all family members could suddenly have six or seven telephone numbers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_A...Numbering_Plan

http://www.nanpa.com/

[p69rrh51]

Tuxedo 5-1959! Love the old eastside 88 numbers

[reddog289]

While working on my furnace last weekend. I looked more closley at the rather large sticker on the cold air return. It has phone numbers with the UN and the TR exchanges. Have to look them up and see if they are still in business.

[Meddle]

Dang, lookey, lookey what I just stumbled onto!!

http://www.thecentraloffice.com/MI/Detroit/Detroit.htm

Some interesting pictures of exchange buildings

[MikeM]

That website belongs to a friend of mine in San Diego. I took all of the Detroit and Michigan pictures except for the ones in the U.P. I don't think he updates it very often, especially after a visit from the FBI a few years ago.

[EastsideQT]

Darn, I was going to call you so we could get high on pot, steal a car, hold up a liquor store, burn down some houses, and hire some hoes. Oh well, I guess I'll just stay home and watch Leave it to Beaver reruns.

A hoe is a tool used for gardening.