There is a lot of history associated with the way the phone number 'Pennsylvania6-5000' is written! In the early 20th century, phones were assigned numbers using up to 4 digits (party line numbering worked a little differently). The amount of digits depended on the area. For example: a small community would have a phone number like '22' …
There is a lot of history associated with the way the phone number 'Pennsylvania6-5000' is written! In the early 20th century, phones were assigned numbers using up to 4 digits (party line numbering worked a little differently). The amount of digits depended on the area. For example: a small community would have a phone number like '22' versus a larger community would have a phone number such as '1234'. However, as the amount of subscribers increased, the format of the number changed to a 2L-5N format. This is the format that Pennsylvania6-5000 follows. In the phone book, the number is written as PEnnsylvania6-5000. The same goes for Beechwood4-5789: BEechwood4-5789. But what is BEechwood and PEnnsylvania? These are exchange names which represent the names of the telephone office which served the community. In San Antonio, the exchange CApital served the downtown area. If your number was CApital6-3232, you would know that the number was located somewhere in downtown San Antonio (give it a call! It is one of the last time and temperature numbers in the United States!). As more and more people used the telephone, All Number Calling (ANC) was introduced sometime in the late 60s. This changed PEnnsylvania6-5000 to 736-5000 and BEechwood4-5789 to 234-5789 leaving exchange names in the past.
There is a lot of history associated with the way the phone number 'Pennsylvania6-5000' is written! In the early 20th century, phones were assigned numbers using up to 4 digits (party line numbering worked a little differently). The amount of digits depended on the area. For example: a small community would have a phone number like '22' versus a larger community would have a phone number such as '1234'. However, as the amount of subscribers increased, the format of the number changed to a 2L-5N format. This is the format that Pennsylvania6-5000 follows. In the phone book, the number is written as PEnnsylvania6-5000. The same goes for Beechwood4-5789: BEechwood4-5789. But what is BEechwood and PEnnsylvania? These are exchange names which represent the names of the telephone office which served the community. In San Antonio, the exchange CApital served the downtown area. If your number was CApital6-3232, you would know that the number was located somewhere in downtown San Antonio (give it a call! It is one of the last time and temperature numbers in the United States!). As more and more people used the telephone, All Number Calling (ANC) was introduced sometime in the late 60s. This changed PEnnsylvania6-5000 to 736-5000 and BEechwood4-5789 to 234-5789 leaving exchange names in the past.
Fascinating! Thank you for this history