Houston Phone Numbers Became Numbers

[BayouCityGirl]

In the 1960's my dad said Houston had a unique dialing code (like a bunch of letters instead of numbers) can someone give me any more info on what that was like. I'm REALLY curious!

He found an old menu from "Juniors" and when the Astrodome opened which had these "letters" instead of numbers. I hope someone knows what I'm talking about. Its hard to explain. :-/

[BayouCityGirl]

http://ourwebhome.com/TENP/TENproject.html

found it!

this is VERY interesting and VERY weird!!

[Guest danax]

Oh sure. All cities had this system, I believe. It was one phase of the ever-evolving phone # system. The word prefix that proceeded the number was known as the exchange. I remember in CA in the 60s my grandmother's was Andover 13978, and you would use the numbers on the dial that corresponded to the first 2 letters of the prefix. I think it was phased out pretty much universally sometime in the 60s.

If you go into the Julia Ideson library (the old library building next to the Central Library, very beautiful 1926 interior, by the way) they have old City Directories where you can look up the old exchanges by street address. You can also see which houses on each street had phones year by year and what the phone # was. My house got a phone for the first time in, I think, 1939 and the exchange was Wayside.

[BayouCityGirl]

interesting

[editor]

My grandmother in Brooklyn was GE-9-5325.

I never found out what the GE was for.

[tomv]

Oh my God you have made me feel OLD!!!! Growing up in the Memorial area our # was HO5-7175. HO stood for Homestead. That's why there's letters on the phone-it wasn't always so you could dial 1-800-gimme a pizza or whatever. Later of course it was changed to 465-7175.

Here's another bit of phone craziness. At one time, you didn't have to put in an area code like 281 or 713. But that's going WAY back....(Just teasing)

[BayouCityGirl]

I remember when we didn't have to put in area codes!! (that ages me!!) but I wasn't born yet before the Letters were numbers thing. Was this a nationwide thing or just a Texas thing?

[travelguy_73]

As an aside, I recall watching cartoons as a child where anytime they mentioned a phone number it was KL5-something ("Klondike 5"). I guess that is the equivalent to today's "555" prefix, a generic prefix that perhaps never existed in real life.

[dalparadise]

It's been awhile since I looked in a real paper-based phone book, but as recently as about 5-6 years ago, all the exchanges were still listed in the front pages of the residence pages. They'd list the name of each exchange, then the prefixes that went along with it.

The system remains pretty much intact, allowing you to identify an area of town by just the prefix, though realignment of area codes has mixed things up a bit. For instance, an 864 or 868 prefix means The Heights, 666 has always meant Bellaire area and so on. About 10 years ago, I was pretty good with the prefixes inside the loop. I could tell where someone lived by their phone number prefix. I can't do it anymore.

[ssullivan]

The small town I grew up in had some very old phone switching equipment until about 1992 or 1993. Every phone in town was in the same exchange, so the way we dialed local calls was by just dialing the last five digits. If you dialed all seven digits for a local call, the call would not connect because the equipment was set up with every line on the same exchange. For example, my home number was 283-5968 and Dad's work number was 283-2231. To dial him at work from the house, you'd just dial 32231. Touch tone phones would also not work on that system -- just about everyone had the old rotary dial phones (Dad's store still has one that they still use!) or a push button phone set to the pulse setting. After SBC installed new phone switching equipment shortly after I graduated high school, touch tone phones could be used, and you were forced to dial the 2 and 8 for local calls. It took a long time for many people to break the habit of not dialing those two numbers.

[Duce]

The small town I grew up in had some very old phone switching equipment until about 1992 or 1993. Every phone in town was in the same exchange, so the way we dialed local calls was by just dialing the last five digits. If you dialed all seven digits for a local call, the call would not connect because the equipment was set up with every line on the same exchange. For example, my home number was 283-5968 and Dad's work number was 283-2231. To dial him at work from the house, you'd just dial 32231. Touch tone phones would also not work on that system -- just about everyone had the old rotary dial phones (Dad's store still has one that they still use!) or a push button phone set to the pulse setting. After SBC installed new phone switching equipment shortly after I graduated high school, touch tone phones could be used, and you were forced to dial the 2 and 8 for local calls. It took a long time for many people to break the habit of not dialing those two numbers.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What town was that?

If you remember in the Godfather, Michael calls home after his dad was shot by asking for "Long Beach" and a number.

[dbigtex56]

My hometown had the same setup as ssullivans (only 5 digits required for a local call). For long distance you'd dial the number, then an operator would cut in and ask "What number are you calling from, please?". This was for billing purposes. Fraud didn't seem to be a problem.

Also, many people had party lines. Two or more people would share the same line, and each household had its own distinct 'ring' (e.g., the phone might ring one long ring, followed by two short rings). You might pick up your phone to make a call and discover that someone else was already talking. The polite thing to do was to hang up and try back later; the fun thing was to listen to neighbors' gossip.

I still have the traditional Montrose exchange (JAckson). A friend was very disappointed that he didn't get the "52" number when he moved to Montrose. Guess they'd run out. I've heard that in Manhattan people compete to get the traditional 212 area code.

[jpcampbell]

The small town I grew up in had some very old phone switching equipment until about 1992 or 1993. Every phone in town was in the same exchange, so the way we dialed local calls was by just dialing the last five digits. If you dialed all seven digits for a local call, the call would not connect because the equipment was set up with every line on the same exchange. For example, my home number was 283-5968 and Dad's work number was 283-2231. To dial him at work from the house, you'd just dial 32231. Touch tone phones would also not work on that system -- just about everyone had the old rotary dial phones (Dad's store still has one that they still use!) or a push button phone set to the pulse setting. After SBC installed new phone switching equipment shortly after I graduated high school, touch tone phones could be used, and you were forced to dial the 2 and 8 for local calls. It took a long time for many people to break the habit of not dialing those two numbers.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

When I lived in Pennington, TX, we had a similar thing. To call anywhere in Pennington, you just dialed the last 4 digits. To call to another town nearby, you just dialed a prefix digit + the last 4 numbers. Crockett, for example was like 5+1234.

[Guest danax]

Also, many people had party lines. .

I still have the traditional Montrose exchange (JAckson). A friend was very disappointed that he didn't get the "52" number when he moved to Montrose. Guess they'd run out. I've heard that in Manhattan people compete to get the traditional 212 area code.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, the party lines. I'd forgotten about those. And I just realized I have the traditional prefix for this area too, "92" or, WAyside. Cool.

[Talbot]

In San Antonio atleast in the parts where my family lives(Shirts and Universal City) you don't have to dial the area code. Although if you call them from here in Houston you need an area code.

[editor]

Part of northern New Jersey and upstate New York still have option five-digit dialing. The Warwick Valley Telephone Company spans the state line, and people who live there can just dial 4-xxxx to get 973/764-xxxx or just dial 9-xxxx to get 845/986-xxxx. And calls across the state line are free in either direction. Last time I was there was about five years ago, and they still had payphones that only cost a dime for local calls. I found out the hard way because even with a tri-band (analog, CDMA, TDMA) cell phone there was absolutely no service.

[editor]

Sorry to reply to myself, but I just checked the phone company's web site, and they seem just as quaint as I remember.

If you don't have a fax machine, you can use theirs!

Just call the phone company office and let them know you're expecting a fax. When it arrives, the operator will call you to let you know you can come pick it up.

Eat THAT, SBC!

[Subdude]

Part of northern New Jersey and upstate New York still have option five-digit dialing.  The Warwick Valley Telephone Company spans the state line, and people who live there can just dial 4-xxxx to get 973/764-xxxx or just dial 9-xxxx to get 845/986-xxxx.  And calls across the state line are free in either direction.  Last time I was there was about five years ago, and they still had payphones that only cost a dime for local calls.  I found out the hard way because even with a tri-band (analog, CDMA, TDMA) cell phone there was absolutely no service.

It has always struck me as odd how US landline phone numbers work. In some places you dial 7 digits, only for some calls you have to dial a "1" first. In other places you dial 10 digits, and in some cities you have to dial 11 digits (1+the 10-digit number). Now we learn that in other places you dial 5 digits! Could it be any more confusing? I kind of like the way it works on cell phones. Every number is 10 digits, everywhere. You would think the landline companies would pick up on this.

[Original Timmy Chan's]

Cool...I'm RIverside (747-xxxx)

[Perimeter285]

Sharpstown's exchange back then was Preston (77). My phone number is still on that exchange.

By the way, I also requested a 713 number on my cell phone when I moved to Houston so that I could have the in-town area code. Dorky, I know.

[Heights2Bastrop]

Among those I remember are:

86

[LTAWACS]

It's been awhile since I looked in a real paper-based phone book, but as recently as about 5-6 years ago, all the exchanges were still listed in the front pages of the residence pages. They'd list the name of each exchange, then the prefixes that went along with it.

The system remains pretty much intact, allowing you to identify an area of town by just the prefix, though realignment of area codes has mixed things up a bit. For instance, an 864 or 868 prefix means The Heights, 666 has always meant Bellaire area and so on. About 10 years ago, I was pretty good with the prefixes inside the loop. I could tell where someone lived by their phone number prefix. I can't do it anymore.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I can do it for most 713's and some 281's still.

[SusanM]

I can do it for most 713's and some 281's still.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Mine was GREENWOOD 2-0970. So that's 472-0970, I guess.

Geez I can't believe I can remember that! I can't even remember my son's cell number!

[sevfiv]

and don't forget jimmy stewart in "the glenn miller story"

where he sings "pennsylvania 6-5000"

[Ashikaga]

In the 1960's my dad said Houston had a unique dialing code (like a bunch of letters instead of numbers) can someone give me any more info on what that was like. I'm REALLY curious!

He found an old menu from "Juniors" and when the Astrodome opened which had these "letters" instead of numbers. I hope someone knows what I'm talking about. Its hard to explain. :-/

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The only letter exchange that I remember in Houston was NAtional.

Chet Cuccia

[TexasHome]

I remember when we first moved to Clear Lake City, our exchange was "HU8" HU for Houston and 8 being the area. It was finally just known as 488.

[lowspark]

PArkview was mine back in the 60s. Back then everyone in parkview was PA9 or PA3. That's it. Then they added PA1 numbers. I live in that area now and my number is PA6 or actually 726-.... And of course lots of other exchanges cover this area now.

[Ashikaga]

I remember when we didn't have to put in area codes!! (that ages me!!) but I wasn't born yet before the Letters were numbers thing. Was this a nationwide thing or just a Texas thing?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It was nationwide. You didn't have to dial the area code if you were making a call within it, just dial 1 and then the number. Now if you want to make a long distance call just 20 miles away you have to dial 1+AC+number.

Last year I worked as a substitute school teacher. I tried explaining to the students what a telephone looked like and how it worked when I was their age. I would say to them: "It had a dial with holes in it. You would stick your finger into one of the holes and turn it to the right, then let it return back."

Who else out there remembers that?

Chet Cuccia

[dbigtex56]

Last year I worked as a substitute school teacher.  I tried explaining to the students what a telephone looked like and how it worked when I was their age.  I would say to them:  "It had a dial with holes in it.  You would stick your finger into one of the holes and turn it to the right, then let it return back."

Who else out there remembers that?

Chet Cuccia

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Probably everyone over age 40 remembers rotary dial phones.

The first touch-tone phone I recall seeing was in the late 60's. We were mystified as to the purpose of the '*' and '#' symbols; it was explained that they were "reserved for future use".

There were few optional services on phones (private lines and unlisted numbers are the only ones I can think of), and the hell that is voice mail and automated customer service wasn't even on the horizon.

[Ashikaga]

Probably everyone over age 40 remembers rotary dial phones.

The first touch-tone phone I recall seeing was in the late 60's. We were mystified as to the purpose of the '*' and '#' symbols; it was explained that they were "reserved for future use".

There were few optional services on phones (private lines and unlisted numbers are the only ones I can think of), and the hell that is voice mail and automated customer service wasn't even on the horizon.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, I'm 47. Your right about what your "options" were back then. Also back then, when you'd call a person and/or a business, a human being would answer the phone. There was no voice mail, or "for this, press 1, for that, press 2."

Chet Cuccia

[Subdude]

There was no voice mail, or "for this, press 1, for that, press 2.

We should go back to that.

I'm not sure about this, but I think that back then you didn't actually buy your phone, it was somehow leased from the phone company, and they came in black or funky green.

[dbigtex56]

Absolutely correct. Ma Bell leased phones and forbade people from buying their own. Their contention was that non-Bell phones might be of inferior quality and would interfere with the phone system. If someone was to damage their phone, Ma Bell made the repairs. The charges were pretty steep.

Of course, if you wanted to pay a little extra and get a 'designer' color or Princess model, Bell was all too happy to help.

I think it took a court ruling, but people were finally allowed to purchase - not lease - their phones about 25 years ago.

[gnu]

yeah, I think all (or a lot of) phones were leased up until the breakup of AT&T around 1980. I remember my grandma had this cool old black phone from the 40's - at least. Very heavy and solid, lots of deco design influences. When she moved to DC in the late seventies, she had to turn in her phone because it had been leased! I wanted to keep it (ie. steal it) but back then you didnt mess with the "phone company"

[lowspark]

We should go back to that.

I'm not sure about this, but I think that back then you didn't actually buy your phone, it was somehow leased from the phone company, and they came in black or funky green.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh yeah. You had to rent your phone, and pay for it every month in the phone bill. And a princess phone cost extra. So did colors. WHAT A RIP OFF!

Then in about 1980 or so, you had to turn in your rented phone and buy your own. They were pretty expensive to buy back then too!

And yes, I do remember rotary phones. You can still see them in old movies sometimes. I remember telling my kids about them, and I said, I hated phone numbers with too many zeros. You had to rotate that dial ALL THE WAY AROUND, and wait for it to come all the way back! How funny that all seems now.

[gnu]

BTW, I still have a rotary phone. It was in the attic when we moved in. I hooked it up in a spare bedroom. It works great, the receiver is very solid. Of course, I don't use it too often..especially nowadays with the 10-digit dialing.

[Ashikaga]

Absolutely correct. Ma Bell leased phones and forbade people from buying their own. Their contention was that non-Bell phones might be of inferior quality and would interfere with the phone system. If someone was to damage their phone, Ma Bell made the repairs. The charges were pretty steep.

Of course, if you wanted to pay a little extra and get a 'designer' color or Princess model, Bell was all too happy to help. 

I think it took a court ruling, but people were finally allowed to purchase - not lease - their phones about 25 years ago.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You're right. In 1982 the telecommunications industry was deregulated as a result of the courts ruling that AT&T was a monopoly. Years ago it costs more, but it was simpler. After 1982, everyone was swamped by MCI, Sprint, and numerous other long distance companies.

Up until 1983, area code 713 covered not only all of Houston, but all of the southeastern corner of Texas including Beaumont (the city that I graduated from high school in), Port Arthur, Orange, Jasper, Galveston, etc. Nowadays when you drive just a few miles, you don't know if you've entered a new area code or not. Now 713 is the very innermost part of Houston.

Chet Cuccia

[Subdude]

Here is area code trivia that I heard (but I can't prove it's true). When they originally introduced the area codes, the ones that were easiest to dial on a rotary telephone went to the largest metropolitan areas at the time. That meant that the middle digit was a "1" instead of "0", and the first and third digits were small so you didn't have to wait long for the dial to spin around. New York, the biggest city, got 212 because it was easiest to dial. Next Chicago got 312 and LA 213. Maybe Houston's having 713 is an indication of our size at the time.

[Ashikaga]

Here is area code trivia that I heard (but I can't prove it's true).  When they originally introduced the area codes, the ones that were easiest to dial on a rotary telephone went to the largest metropolitan areas at the time.  That meant that the middle digit was a "1" instead of "0", and the first and third digits were small so you didn't have to wait long for the dial to spin around.  New York, the biggest city, got 212 because it was easiest to dial.  Next Chicago got 312 and LA 213.  Maybe Houston's having 713 is an indication of our size at the time.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You might not be too far "off base."

Chet Cuccia

[Perimeter285]

When area codes were first assigned, states with multiple area codes had codes with "1" as the center digit. States with only one area code had "0" as the middle digit. Since Texas had multiple area codes, Houston and Southeast Texas got one with a 1 in the middle: 713.

It all stood to reason: states with multiple area codes were usually more populous and therefore fielded more phone calls. Since "0" took longer than "1" to dial on old rotary phones, then the states with the most phone calls got the area codes that took less time to dial.

[Ashikaga]

BTW, I still have a rotary phone.  It was in the attic when we moved in.  I hooked it up in a spare bedroom.  It works great, the receiver is very solid.  Of course, I don't use it too often..especially nowadays with the 10-digit dialing.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, you couldn't use a rotary dial phone even if you wanted to because 9 out of every 10 businesses you call are answered by a recording that tells you to "press 1" or "press 2" for this or that.

Chet Cuccia

[Diane]

Among those I remember are:

86

[sevfiv]

If you go into the Julia Ideson library (the old library building next to the Central Library, very beautiful 1926 interior, by the way) they have old City Directories where you can look up the old exchanges by street address. You can also see which houses on each street had phones year by year and what the phone # was. My house got a phone for the first time in, I think, 1939 and the exchange was Wayside.

i have a 1955 city directory, and it is very interesting to look through. it is especially helpful that the directories have reverse look-ups (not only by name of business/person, but listings by street name and number).

and the ideson building/texas room is an indispensable source for houston information...

[57Tbird]

The earliest exchange I can remember is from when I lived on Elgin in the early 40's. It was Lehigh-6464 (dial L-6464). We moved to Southampton about 1946 and our exchange was LYnchberg (LY-), which begat LYnchberg9 (LY9-), which became JAckson9 (JA9-), and then just 529-. What was interesting was the party line that we always had, that we shared with someone else. Finally got a private line in the early 50's.

[HoustonianInColorado]

I am 52, but still remember my phone numbers when I was a child. While in Kindergarten I lived in Bellaire and the number was MAdison 3-9975. The next year, we moved to Sharpstown, and the number was GYpsy 4-2931. The Gypsy exchange was changed to Prescott for some reason later, and the number would have become PRescott 4-2931. Once they implemented direct distance dialing (DDD) in the old Bell System, they added Area Codes (NPAs in Telephonese, for Numbering Plan Area), and they went to all number dialing. Thus PR 4 exchange was the same as 774. The number would then have become 713-774-2931.

[Heights2Bastrop]

It wasn

[Ashikaga]

It wasn’t that long ago that phone directories showed the person’s occupation and/or where they worked. I know the huge cross reference directory from the early 70s showed that information.

In the same vein, as late as the 50s, the newspapers used to include the address of the person in an article whether it was about a crime or simply a human interest story.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Now it's mostly city directories that list a person's name, address, phone number and occupation. Nowadays, many people are opting-out of having anything about themselves listed in either the telephone or in the city directory because of identity theft.

I, personally, have no problem with my name being listed in the telephone book because of Caller ID. If someone calls that I don't want to talk to, I simply don't answer my telephone. But I would have my number non-published (not just unlisted) if Caller ID had not been invented.

[Watchful]

As I remember it, most of the downtown businesses in Houston  had the CApitol numbers.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

OK...who recognizes this phone number:

CApitol 2-7171

[57Tbird]

OK...who recognizes this phone number:

CApitol 2-7171

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Doggone! Had forgotten all about that until I saw it. That was time service wasn't it? Used it many times. I think the current temperture was later incorporated in addition to the time. It started out as just Capitol-7171 as far back as I can remember.

[Watchful]

Doggone!  Had forgotten all about that until I saw it.  That was time service wasn't it?  Used it many times.  I think the current temperture was later incorporated in addition to the time. It started out as just Capitol-7171 as far back as I can remember.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You're fast! And if I remember correctly, you could dial 222-71xx (anything for the last two numbers) and you would still get it - so in the days of the old rotary phones, I got in the habit of dialing 222-7111.

[Trophy Property]

The small town I grew up in had some very old phone switching equipment until about 1992 or 1993. Every phone in town was in the same exchange, so the way we dialed local calls was by just dialing the last five digits. If you dialed all seven digits for a local call, the call would not connect because the equipment was set up with every line on the same exchange. For example, my home number was 283-5968 and Dad's work number was 283-2231. To dial him at work from the house, you'd just dial 32231. Touch tone phones would also not work on that system -- just about everyone had the old rotary dial phones (Dad's store still has one that they still use!) or a push button phone set to the pulse setting. After SBC installed new phone switching equipment shortly after I graduated high school, touch tone phones could be used, and you were forced to dial the 2 and 8 for local calls. It took a long time for many people to break the habit of not dialing those two numbers.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

My parents owned a house in Breckenridge, Colorado until 1994 and way back in the early 80's I remember only having to dial the 4 numbers. Every phone is the city had the prefix 453. As the town grew I assume this all changed. I just remember dialing the four digits. Interesting.