This is a really cool one.
This coal chute cover on East 9th Street was crafted by Empire City Iron Works, who included their phone number, CIRCLE 1500. According to research by the signage expert Walter Grutchfield, Empire City Iron Works was founded in 1907, and from 1915 to 1919 was located on Manhattan's 8th Avenue. In late 1919 or early 1920 the business moved to Long Island City, Queens, where it got a new number. Over 100 years later, the business remains at that Queens location. Pretty cool that there is still a remnant from a phone number that hasn't worked in over a century, and even cooler that the business still exists today.
Card show trip - picking through odds and ends
9 hours ago

yep, pretty cool
ReplyDeleteVery cool indeed. Spent my whole life using 10 digit phone numbers. It's nice to be reminded that it wasn't always this way. Thanks for the history lesson.
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