old telephone prefixes


Questions and Answers (Q&A) Forgotten Chicago Forum
Explore Forgotten Chicago
Have a question about a specific element in Chicago's history? Ask Away! 
old telephone prefixes
Posted by: ChiTownJim ()
Date: August 02, 2014 10:47AM

What word (exchange?) would be used for a 772 prefix? I read your article on old phone numbers but didn't see it listed.

Options: ReplyQuote

AD:

Re: old telephone prefixes
Posted by: b.a.hoarder ()
Date: August 02, 2014 11:21AM

From a list seen here-



and your old exchange would have been Prescott or Prospect. The Garfield Ridge area where I lived had Ludlow, Portsmouth and Reliance exchanges as I recall.

Options: ReplyQuote

AD:

Re: old telephone prefixes
Posted by: rjmachon ()
Date: August 02, 2014 06:18PM

Mine use to be Albany 2... I still can remember my first phone number.

Options: ReplyQuote

AD:

Re: old telephone prefixes
Posted by: Mornac ()
Date: August 02, 2014 09:00PM

When I was a kid ours was [b]BR[/b]iargate 4. We took it with us when we moved a few blocks away and my parents had it until they retired and moved out of the neighborhood. The common ones in our area where [b]AR[/b]dmore 1, [b]LO[/b]ngbeah 1, [b]RA[/b]venswood 8, [b]HO[/b]llycourt 5, and [b]RO[/b]gers Park 4. I remember an occasional [b]BI[/b]ttersweet and [b]UP[/b]town as well. I always wondered what the location scheme was. They seem to be area specific, but why didn't everyone on the same block have the same exchange?

Options: ReplyQuote

AD:

Re: old telephone prefixes
Posted by: Dunning1 ()
Date: August 04, 2014 05:32PM

A lot of it had to do with time....I believe numbers with different exchanges were given out over time, and then some of the older numbers were reused. I still have the same PALlisade telephone number that my parents first got in 1953! I can even remember my grandfather's store number, MONroe1466, and our old family doctor's number, CAPitol 7570.

Options: ReplyQuote

AD:

Re: old telephone prefixes
Posted by: davey7 ()
Date: August 05, 2014 08:05PM

A lot of people in Hyde Park still have the old phones from that era - I have one that came with my apartment which has the old exchange listed. My mom tried to call "the phone company" back in the day and called from our neighbors who still only had that on their phone.. Poor Ernestine didn't have a good day with that.

Options: ReplyQuote

AD:

Re: old telephone prefixes
Posted by: Rustymuscle ()
Date: August 06, 2014 11:48AM

772 would have been SPaulding 2. S=7. P=7.

Options: ReplyQuote

AD:

Re: old telephone prefixes
Posted by: Mr Downtown ()
Date: August 06, 2014 12:35PM

b.a.hoarder Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> your old exchange would have been Prescott or
> Prospect.

In Chicago, PRescott only had 9 as the third digit; PRospect only had 6 and 8.

SPaulding 2 was on the North Side.

Options: ReplyQuote

AD:

Re: old telephone prefixes
Posted by: mikbasile ()
Date: August 12, 2014 10:52PM

Hudson 3 2700,,,,,,,, do any of you folks remember that one?

Options: ReplyQuote

AD:

Re: old telephone prefixes
Posted by: PKDickman ()
Date: August 12, 2014 11:02PM

mikbasile Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hudson 3 2700,,,,,,,, do any of you folks remember
> that one?

That is Bouschelle carpet cleaning.
They are still in business out in Stone Park and still have the same number.

Options: ReplyQuote

AD:

Re: old telephone prefixes
Posted by: Kool Kat ()
Date: August 20, 2014 02:58AM

Ours was DI(versey)-8-5442. I still remember that from the 50's. We lived in Lincoln Park at that time, on Fremont Street near Belden.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/2014 02:59AM by Kool Kat.

Options: ReplyQuote

AD:

Re: old telephone prefixes
Posted by: Dunning1 ()
Date: August 20, 2014 01:30PM

Heh, I still have the same telephone number that my parents got in 1953, and if you think that's nuts, I still have the same license plate number that my grandfather originally got on his 1928 Hupmobile. The plate went to my father in 1940, and then when he passed away, I got the number reassigned in 1996. When I eventually buy an old car, I will be able to put a plate on the car from the year it was manufactured that will register back to me. I have all of the old plates back to 1940!

Options: ReplyQuote

AD:

Re: old telephone prefixes
Posted by: Wallergirl ()
Date: August 30, 2014 10:13AM

We were a MIchigan 2 number, a northside prefix, but somehow often got wrong numbers for a southside walgreens. They might have been MIdway 3 with the same 4digits as ours. My first all-number phone was 66x-6x66....always thought it was a good thing i didn't lisp.

Options: ReplyQuote

AD:



Home | Columns | Articles | Features | Links | Forum | Mission Statement | Staff | Media & Press | Maps | FAQ | Contact