If you’re walking through Manhattan’s Upper West Side along West End Avenue, you might stumble upon a nostalgic piece of the past: public phone booths that are still in operation. These are 3 of The Last 4 Public Phone Booths in New York City:
A Rare Sight in the City
Located along West End Avenue at 66th St., 90th St., 100th St., and 101st St., these four phone booths are the final remnants of the 8,000 public phones that once dotted the streets of NYC. With the rise of cell phones, the NYC Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications replaced nearly all public phones with LinkNYC kiosks, which provide free WiFi across the city.
Why Are These Phone Booths Still Here?
The survival of these phone booths is largely thanks to Alan Flacks, a resident of the Upper West Side and a self-proclaimed pay phone enthusiast. According to The New York Times, Flacks took action by gathering petition signatures and lobbying local officials, arguing that the booths deserve preservation just like any other New York City landmark.
“There’s the obvious reason that these are iconic NYC phone booths,” Flacks explains. “But also, listen: sometimes, you just need a hard-wired pay phone. Cell phones don’t always work.”
The phone booth at 100th Street even inspired the 2010 children’s book The Lonely Phone Booth by Peter Ackerman, which tells the story of a glass phone booth growing lonely as people abandon it for cell phones.
A Glimpse Into the Past That Still Stands
While none of the booths have doors anymore, and you might not always get a dial tone, they’re still standing tall in the Upper West Side. These booths are not just a piece of history—they’re a testament to the city’s ability to blend nostalgia with modernity