posted on August 11, 2005 08:34:50 PM
I have an item from a pharmacy in Early L.A. Phone number given is PRospect 6956. Is there any way I can find out what decade or years there were just 4 digits in a phone number plus the prefix Prospect?
posted on August 11, 2005 09:02:38 PM
Contact the California Public Utilities Commission in San Francisco. They are the agency that issued the PRospect prefix to Pacific Bell, and authorized the implementation of the 4 number system in the first place. It will probably take a phone call to find someone who can direct you to an archive on their web site. They should have an 800 number.
A $75.00 solid state device will always blow first to protect a 25 cent fuse ~ Murphy's Law
posted on August 11, 2005 09:20:19 PM
I googled it and found:
Three-letter exchange names
Only four cities in the USA used three-letter prefixes; all others (and these four as well eventually) used two letters and a numeric digit.
* Boston, until 1948
* Chicago, until 1948
* New York, until December 1930
* Philadelphia, until July 1946.
New York was the only place to provide an overlap period (12 months), while both old and new codes worked.
According to Mark Cuccia, Los Angeles had mixed-length office codes, some being 2-digits (letters) only, some being 2-letters and one digit, thus the local numbering and dialing (until the late 1950s or early 60s timeframe) was mixed 2L-4N (6 'digit' local numbers) and 2L-5N (7 'digit' local numbers).
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posted on August 12, 2005 10:04:18 AM
I remember the two-letter system when I was kid. It changed to all-numeric in northern Los Angeles in the early to mid-60's.
posted on August 12, 2005 10:17:48 AM
I do remember the two-letter system. My question was more about when a two-letter plus only four digits! became defunct. Only four digits had to be early, right?
This item was in old family records my husband discovered, from about 1900 to 1935. But I'd like to be more certain of a time period for this particular item.
posted on August 12, 2005 05:45:46 PM
Didn't you read my post Adele? It said 2 letter and 4 numbers was used until end of 50's early 60's
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posted on August 12, 2005 05:56:35 PM
Yes... 1950s had a lot of 2 letters plus 4 digits... or just "party lines" that had to be shared within a neighborhood.
posted on August 12, 2005 05:58:50 PM
Two letters and 5 numbers were in use in 1958, at least in North Hollywood. That was the year we joined a major carrier whose west coast terminal was in N.Hollywood and I began calling that number on a daily basis. TRiangle 7-9741.
A $75.00 solid state device will always blow first to protect a 25 cent fuse ~ Murphy's Law
posted on August 12, 2005 06:05:42 PM
I grew up in Nebraska - our number was 2-7728...before that we lived in a smaller town - Mom used to say to the operator: "Janice, do you know where Bill (my dad - a minister) is? Can you ring him up?" Janice always knew where he and everyone else was and what they were up to!
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posted on August 12, 2005 06:54:45 PM
The first telephone number my parents had in this county had the number 530J. If you wanted to call someone, you had to pick up the receiver and wait for the operator to say "number please", then you gave her the number you wanted to call. When they did a major "modernization" of the system, we got assigned a new number, 1312. The local sheriff's substation got the number 1313. It was always fun when someone would get excited or mad and give the operator our number instead of the sheriff's. Ring ring...Hello,...Some SOB stole my lawn mower last night and I want someone out here right now...Gee, that's too bad, go buy another one and learn to keep it locked up..click. It was a ball!!! Until my dad caught me doing it
A $75.00 solid state device will always blow first to protect a 25 cent fuse ~ Murphy's Law
posted on August 12, 2005 08:08:49 PM
Neglus, as a little girl we lived in a small town suburb of Chicago. My dad, also, was a minister; our phone number was 375, and the operator pretty much knew where dad was during the day. Interesting growing up as a PK, huh. Many advantages--hearing good English spoken, King James Bible English, beautiful stuff. Getting a good ear for music, early. Disadvantages were that the church princess and prince (my little brother) were watched All the Time and had to be good, which we were NOT.
!