26 February 2009

Off Topic: Last Baltimore phone booth?


The Washington Post ran an article a while back on what was believed to be the last stand-alone phone booth in the metropolitan D.C. area, in the Clarendon neighborhood of Virginia. It's gone now, but that had me paying attention to the few remaining old-style booths in the Baltimore region.


For a while, I thought the last one--at least the only one I could find--was outside St. Agnes Hospital on Wilkens Avenue, but that one disappeared a couple weeks ago.


The other day, I discovered another one on the 6300 block of Reisterstown Road, outside the Pratt Library branch under reconstruction. The phone line is apparently dead, and it appears from what I saw that this box survives more as a bus stop shelter than anything else.


Any others in the Baltimore area? We're talking outdoor four-sided boxes, not kiosk stands or indoor booths like in the Hotel Belvedere. Bonus if the phone works. [UPDATE: I can't find the ones that used to be in the Belvedere. A victim of remodeling, or just faulty memory?]


If arcane roadside trivia like this interests you, I heartily recommend Baltimore Ghosts by Adam Paul, a website FULL of odds and ends still located all over Baltimore.

3 comments:

platypotamus said...

there's one on Falls Road, just north of Princeton Sports.

Jay Zeis said...

I have noticed a couple of remaining phones (no booths) around Canton. Surprised me as well.

Unknown said...

It looks like it's gone now... The search for the last booth goes on !

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.35467,-76.700164,3a,75y,230.92h,80t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s37GIIOlDG85gIhEYJ-Loig!2e0!6m1!1e1