Joe’s Superette on Smith Street in Carroll Gardens has the most wonderful store sign, which looks like it was put up around 1958. UL stood for Ulster. But what was Ulster?
The Valencia Bakery is on Broadway in Williamsburg. Besides a cool old 1960s sign, the WY exchange remains.
Tags: Carroll Gardens, Joe's Superette, old New York phone exchanges, Smith Street, Vintage signs
Ephemeral New York 
February 13, 2009 at 12:01 am |
[…] Ephemeral New York […]
March 1, 2009 at 9:36 pm |
My aunt and uncle lived at Clinton and Atlantic in Brooklyn Heights and their phone exchange was Ulster, so that brought back a nice memory. I lived in Sheepshead Bay, and my exchange was SH. My friend two streets over was NI for Nightingale. Who knows why?
October 1, 2017 at 1:59 pm |
SH was either SHoreroad or SHeepshead, depending on the exchange’s single digit.
March 4, 2009 at 8:50 pm |
Interesting that the picture on the bottom shows one phone number as WY 1 (WYandotte 1, that was), but uses the newer all number format for the other. That 388 was EVergreen 8, but I suppose the store owner adden that number after all-number calling started, while his WYandotte 1 number had been obtained earlier.
September 16, 2017 at 12:55 pm |
The WY1 was the phone number for their Bronx location
March 4, 2009 at 8:52 pm |
Actually, it’s strange that a WYandotte 1 exchange would be on a Brooklyn store. That was a Bronx telephone exchange!
May 13, 2009 at 7:09 pm |
I just got an old rotary phone and in the center of the dial, 3 pieces of paper deep listing #’s going back in time is:
evergreen 8-4905
May 13, 2009 at 7:31 pm |
I know Evergreen was Brooklyn, but not sure where exactly. Perhaps near the Evergreens cemetery on the Queens border?
May 14, 2009 at 1:55 pm |
EVergreen numbers were near the Queens line, for sure (some even were in Queens, in fact; the phone books gave them with a notation that they were used in both boroughs) but I don’t know Brooklyn/Queens geography well enough to pinpoint them. Where would (for example) 718-388 numbers be now?
May 17, 2009 at 2:53 am |
Bruce,
My aunt lives in the Williamsburg section and has a 718-388 number. To be more precise, in the Linsday Park co-ops just off of Broadway.
June 22, 2009 at 1:55 pm |
Flatbush and East Flatbush had the UL exchange.
There was also RU (Rugby) which I think was Flatlands.
IN was Ingersoll, but I don’t rmemeber what area that covered.
All of those would now be 718
July 24, 2009 at 2:44 pm |
I don’t know where you got that RUgby exchange from. There never was such an exchange to my knowledge, in Brooklyn or anywhere else in New York City. RU dials as 78, and the only 78-anything exchanges in NYC were STagg 2, STerling 3, STillwell 4, PUlaski 5, STillwell 6, SUnset 6, SUsquehanna 7, STerling 8, STerling 9, and STuyvesant 9. (Some of these, like PUlaski 5, SUnset 6, and STuyvesant 9, went away in the 1930s and 1940s.)
March 15, 2011 at 2:40 am
I have to disagree, I do remember the Rugby Exchange, perhaps named after Rugby Road.
March 15, 2011 at 1:33 pm
I can’t understand how you remember it. I’ve looked through old telephone books from the 1910s to the 1950s, and if I’d ever seen a RUgby exchange I would have seen it there. There just wasn’t ever such an exchange in Brooklyn.
October 1, 2017 at 2:01 pm |
Borough Park also had the Ulster-3 exchange
February 3, 2022 at 3:20 pm
My grandparents lived at 53rd and Ft Hamilton- UL 3- 9108
July 23, 2009 at 11:54 pm |
INgersoll…was my phone exchange….IN-2-5366 to be exact in 1967-1975…at Maple Stree near Flatbush Avenue…
PResident (778) was on Buffalo Avenue & St. John’s Place
July 29, 2009 at 2:32 pm |
EVergreen was an exchange I remember from my childhood living in the Cypress Hills/East New York area, as being designated for the Ridgewood, Queens, area where my father’s relatives lived. This neighborhood is indeed in the “cemetery belt” along the old Interboro Parkway, now known as the Jackie Robinson Parkway. Other phone exchanges from my Cypress Hills area were: TAylor 7-, MIdway 7-, and in an adjacent neighborhood of Woodhaven, VIrginia 7- was used. APplegate 7- was my old phone number used from the 1940s into the 1960s, when the old exchanges were just converted to their dial numbers. I love the old, romantic-historic phone exchanges of yesteryear. Just think, our grandchildren will be waxing nostalgic someday about the commonly used email addresses and cell phone numbers, etc. used today!
October 7, 2011 at 5:32 pm |
ah yes, i remember the Ap7, MI7, and my number from the 50’s – 78 was TA7-5196 I lived in eny right off jamaica ave, across from highland park
May 14, 2023 at 10:28 pm |
Richmond St between Ridgewood and Etna – MIdway 7. I still remember the rotary phone from when I was a kid, and it had Midway spelled out on the center of the dial (with capital MI). I loathed phone numbers that had 7, 8, 9, and 0 in them – so hard to dial!
August 31, 2009 at 4:16 pm |
I had a number relatives who lived in Ridgewood/Cypress Hills along the old “City Line” between Bklyn and Queens unitil the late 70s and they had EVergreen 8 and my grandparents in East NY had APplegate 7. But my immediate family lived on 70th and Park Ave in Manhattan and we had BUtterfield 8 (288). It sure made it easier to remember numbers!
My best friend was TRafalgar 9 (879), also on the Upper East Side. When we moved to Sunnyside, Queens in the late 70s, the switch had taken place and we were given 392 which a friend told me was EXeter 2 – we lived 2 blocks from the Queens end of Greenpoint Ave.
September 9, 2009 at 7:28 am |
Joe’s has the most amazing rice balls – everyone should go there and try them
November 10, 2009 at 4:34 am |
[…] Joe’s Superette, on Smith Street in Carroll Gardens, also has a UL number. That’s a bit of a hike from Myrtle […]
December 23, 2009 at 1:20 am |
Just found this so I am late. There was also DEwey-9 on Ocean P’kw’y near Ave “S” and GEdney-4 on Newkirk Ave. near Argyle Rd.
January 9, 2010 at 2:24 am |
My grandparents were in Flatbush with UL-6, we were in ENY Brooklyn at NI- 9 and my aunt was in East Paterson at SW-6.
August 8, 2010 at 12:02 pm |
I come from Brooklyn heights and my phone number started with UL-ster and my firend across the street started with TR for triangle. now they are 718 and then the number or in manhatten its 210. I went to that valencia bakery many times. My cousins lived in Carol gardens. I still remember my phone number from that time.
February 9, 2011 at 7:27 pm |
I grew up in the flatlands area of Brooklyn. Our house was Esplanade and my aunt was Cloverdale. Later on our house number changed to Hickory and then just CH.
The old numbers were easier to remember because of the word exchanges.
February 13, 2012 at 8:02 pm |
Anyone know the exchanges for Brighton, Bushwick, Brownsville in the 1950’s?
February 14, 2012 at 1:34 am |
In the 1940s, the ULster exchange was started in Brooklyn. There is an Ulster County in New York State, and an Ulster province in Ireland, so the exchange was probably named after one of those; a lot of exchanges were named for places far away from NYC (though usually for states like ORegon, VIrginia, etc.) As I remarked on an earlier occasion, WY on a building in Brooklyn is puzzling, because WYandotte was a Bronx exchange.
A list of exchanges in New York City can be found on my telephone site, http://phone.net46.net/nyc/ and you are welcome to look.
February 17, 2012 at 10:56 pm |
We lived in East New York on Bradford St., off Linden Blvd., in the 40s and our number was CLoverdale 7-…..
May 13, 2012 at 1:27 am |
I think EVergreen 9 was Greenpiont Brooklyn, I remember that my aunts phone # begain like that. Ok so i just bought a dress for like 2 bucks, its from Brooklyn Fashion Center which was located at 545 Fulton Ave At Albee Square, its no longer there, the dress was never worn and the tags are on it. How cool. The old number was:
MAin
5-6420
Does anyone one remember what year this was?
Kim
March 9, 2013 at 9:40 pm |
When I lived in Brooklyn, I had a Gedney 8 and then and Ulster 4 number. The topic of exc hange names appeared on a FB thread. There was also Butterfield 8 and Dail M for Murder – both fillms used exchange names (Dial M is a bit more suble).
July 9, 2014 at 11:19 pm |
Hello,
We also had a Gedney 8 number and lived at 1540-48th Street.
We’re you nearby?
Steve
April 18, 2013 at 3:04 pm |
EV8 was my number growing up and I lived in the Northside (Williambsurg Section of Brooklyn on the other side of McCarren Park/Greenpoint) and my cousin who lived on the Southside on the otherside of the BQE was ST2 (Stagg)
June 13, 2013 at 9:05 pm |
I believe the WY exchange was for WYcoff
October 1, 2017 at 2:04 pm |
That’s correct.
August 9, 2013 at 7:02 pm |
Indeed, Ingersoll was the exchange for the neighborhood called Prospect-Lefferts Garden Near Prospect Park. That’s how I was taught my telephone number as a child.
July 16, 2014 at 3:29 pm |
I lived on Miller Avenue and New Lots Avenue in the ’50s and ’60s. My number was CLoverdale 7-1686. I can’t believe I still remember that number! When I went to the ’64 World’s Fair, my friends and I came across a push-button phone. We were amazed and loved the little sounds that emanated from the keys. I believe it made its first appearance at the World’s Fair.
February 16, 2015 at 8:49 pm |
Until I was nine, my family lived in Flatlands, where our phone number was like a title from a swing-era song: CLoverdale 2-0272. We had friends in Midwood, who’s exchange was ESplanade. My grandparents lived by Church and Ocean Ave.’s and their exchange was BUckminster. I think there also might have been a MIdwood exchange. When we moved to Brighton Beach we got our first numerical exchange: 373. However my mom taught at a school a few blocks away where the exchange was COney Island.
June 29, 2015 at 12:57 am |
does anyone know what the exchange would have been for parkslope? near 8th ave & prospect ave.
April 9, 2016 at 2:40 pm |
HYacinth
March 4, 2017 at 3:19 pm |
My grandparents lived on 42nd Street in Brooklyn, and their exchange was GEdney 5.
April 18, 2023 at 4:49 pm |
I know I’m late to this party. But the RUgby exchange in Flatbush makes sense when you realize there’s a Rugby Road in the area, along with an Argyle and a few oh-so-English names. Likewise for the BUckminster exchange, as there is a street by that name in the neighborhood.
Jan–I grew up on Dahill Road, where 17th Avenue dead-ended into it and just off the intersection with 42nd Street. We, too, had a GEdney 5 number. I think we were one of the last people to get an alphanumeric phone number.
March 24, 2018 at 12:24 am |
The WY 1 exchange in Brooklyn was WYman, not WYandotte.
March 26, 2018 at 2:53 am |
I just saw that my last comment was never posted. I am trying again to post this.The ULster-x exchanges were named for local Ulster County, New York, north of the city, not Ireland. Just as the GEdney-x exchanges were named for Gedney, New York, in White Plains just north of the city. The same is true for SHoreroad-x, SHeepshead-x and MIdwood exchanges, named for geographic locales in Brooklyn.
April 4, 2018 at 6:18 pm |
i lived in greenpoint brooklyn and our exchange was evergreen 3
March 26, 2018 at 2:56 am |
Sorry…that should have read Gedney, New York near White Plains in Westchester, just north of the city.
July 27, 2020 at 12:03 am |
CL9-6030 was my old childhood telephone no.in Brooklyn in the 1960’s.The numbers were alpha-numeric,and the exchange was:”CL-9″ i.e, (Cloverdale-9).Way back then,the area code for all (5) boroughs of New York City was 212.
January 1, 2021 at 8:30 pm |
I just found a Business Card for a Longtime employee of Pfizer from the Bartlett Street location his Number was Evergreen 8 -3800. His name was Thomas Connor and he passed in 2009. I wish I knew what year this card was from. He started at Pfizer in 1947 and the EV exchange was phased out in the 60’s – that’s a big range. Can anyone help me figure the year of this card?
April 20, 2022 at 7:04 pm |
This is unbelievable! I have an old cigar box with the name J.A. McGerity of 2516 Bedford Ave. of Brooklyn, NY with the telephone number INgersoll 2-1378 inside. It is covered with old shells. Loveit!
April 19, 2023 at 3:02 pm |
i grew up in the Bushwick Houses near Humboldt St/Debevoise St Brooklyn NY 11206 and that area Once-upon-time used the EV4… exchange.
and still in 2023 Brooklyn area code is 718-
just like in Da Bronx.
February 2, 2024 at 2:45 pm |
In Brooklyn in the 1960’s,we had the “CL” exchange for “Cloverdale” and the telephone no. was: CL9-6030.Originally a party line in the 1950’s and later a single landline with the ubiquitous AT&T,”Ma-Bell” heavy, rotary-dial,black metal and tabletop phone.