In 1889, the first public coin telephone was installed by
inventor William Gray at a bank in Hartford, Conn.
By 1902, there were 81,000 pay telephones in the United
States.
In 1905, the first outdoor Bell System coin telephone was
installed on a Cincinnati street. It wasn't an instant hit; people
apparently were reluctant to make private calls on a public
thoroughfare.
In the 1950s, glass outdoor telephone booths began replacing
wooden ones.
In 1957, "calling from your car" was first tested in Mobile,
Ala., and Chicago. Drive-up pay telephones proved popular and are
still in use today.
In 1960, the Bell System installed its millionth pay telephone.
Today there are 2.2 million pay phones, down from 2.6 million in
1998.
In 1966, "dial tone first" service was introduced in Hartford,
Conn. This essentially turned coin phones into emergency call
stations because such calls could be made without first depositing
coins.
On Feb. 2, 2001, BellSouth announced that it's getting out of
the pay phone business. That would make it the first major phone
company to do so.
When I was a kid growing up, I remember when a public phone
required a dime for a local call. If you called outside of the
local area, an operator would come on and tell you the additional
cost for the first three minutes. I also remember that I
couldn’t keep myself from checking the coin return each time
I walked by a pay phone.
With the advent of cell phones, I think that it is a matter of
time until public pay phones become a thing of the past. If you
look close, you can still see a typical drive-up pay phone.
This cache is located in an area of high muggle-activity during
normal working and commuting hours. There always seems to be
someone at the nearby bus stop or watching from a nearby business.
It is best to approach this cache outside of normal
working/commuting hours. However, it can be done anytime if using
extreme stealth. You may likely be able to drive right up to this
location, using your car as cover.
