Metro Detroit Telephone Central Offices

**mtburb** · September-15-10, 03:23 PM

There are too many in the metro area to find. I need to know all of the central offices in Metro Detroit and where and when they were built.

**MikeM** · September-15-10, 03:58 PM

All of them? And what do you mean by Metro Detroit? I can get you started but you'll have to do a little legwork yourself.

**Claude G.** · September-15-10, 05:54 PM

You need to find an old Ma Bell employee

DC48080 · September-15-10, 05:57 PM

Originally Posted by mtburb

I need to know all of the central offices in Metro Detroit and where and when they were built.

If I may ask, just why do you need to know this obscure information?

**Hamtragedy** · September-15-10, 10:56 PM

Buried in these threads somewhere is one that has most of what you're looking for, complete with their exchanges [[addresses included) and what the letters stood for. I remember staying up late one night in late winter or early spring reading it

**fryar** · September-15-10, 11:20 PM

Not sure if this is what Hamtragedy had in mind, but there is a thread from December 2009 entitled I don't know the name of my former exchange so don't call me. People started posting all of their old phone numbers in that funny old format, where the first two digits after the area code indicated the region you were in/the name of your exchange....eh, if you're looking for this info, you prolly don't need me to explain that to you.

Page 3 of that thread may help you along.

In any event:

Originally Posted by Corn.Bot

No one born after 1975 prob'ly remembers having to sit or stand right by the phone base. Maybe you had a 5-ft cord that you could stretch across a room [[and clothesline people with). You held your conversation where ever the phone was located and, if your dad was like mine, your time limit was 5 or 10 minutes. If you received more than a couple of calls in a day, dad told the next caller you were done with the phone for the night. LOL

Does anyone remember calling the weather by dialing W-E-A-T-H-E-R?

Who even remembers dialing 777-FILM these days?

**Savoyard** · September-16-10, 04:39 PM

I still miss dialing GR-21212 to get the current time! I checked with AT&T and was told it's no longer available and apparently hasn't been for a number of years.

**One Shot** · September-16-10, 06:17 PM

DAMN! I forgot about the GR 21212121! I used to love setting all the clocks in the house to that! "Good evening, at the tone the time will be 7:18, and 10 seconds....BEEEEP!!!