Pay phones are pretty much obsolete at this point, and while a few brave souls have undertaken the task of repurposing them into WiFi hotspots, street libraries, or other things, the overwhelming likelihood is that they're just going to disappear and kids in the future are going to know them as "those big weird smart phones that only made calls and were tethered to the ground and everybody shared them and you couldn't attach them directly to your retinas." But where will the pay phones go when they die?
If modern times are any indication, the dead pay phones will go to the Pay Phone Graveyard at 135th Street and 12th Avenue. Photographer Dave Bledsoe recently stumbled onto it and took some really cool pictures of this saddest of retirement communities, where the old, spent phones while away the days telling each other stories of better times. Remember when I ate all those quarters and kept disconnecting, as a prank? And then that guy got so mad he started bashing me with the receiver? And then the receiver broke? And then they sent me here? I have a lot of regrets.
· Where New York's Old Telephone Booths Go to Die [Atlantic Cities]
· Dave Bledsoe [Flickr]
· Pay Phone coverage [Curbed]
Loading comments...