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
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?
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.
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.
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
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).
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