It was up for sale at a New Jersey antiques market: a vintage wood milk crate stamped “Hygrade Milk,” a Bronx milk company founded in 1914, according to data from Bloomberg.
But the best part of the crate is the phone number beneath it, with the old two-letter phone exchange “LY.” But what’s LY?
The Hygrade Milk and Cream Company apparently existed at 2350 Hermany Avenue, in the southeast Bronx.
This in depth guide to old phone exchanges only lists a LY in Manhattan; it stood for “Lyceum” and covered part of the Upper West Side.
Longwood? That’s a nearby Bronx neighborhood. Or Lafayette Avenue, a street not far from Hermany? Someone must be able to solve this vintage phone exchange mystery.
In the meantime, here are more of these old timey two-letter phone exchanges spotted on signs and in ads around the city, which were all replaced by digits in the 1960s.
Tags: Bronx Phone Exchanges LY, Hygrade Milk and Cream Company, Hygrade Milk Bronx, LY Phone Exchange, old phone exchanges, vintage phone exchanges
Ephemeral New York 
March 5, 2018 at 12:40 pm |
LYdig Avenue in The Bronx?
March 5, 2018 at 1:51 pm |
Lydig….?? An area of Pelham Parkway
Or thereabouts
March 5, 2018 at 2:43 pm |
Lydig—that sounds right!
March 5, 2018 at 4:47 pm |
What I noticed is that it says “DEPOSIT CASE” on it. Firstly it’s funny that they felt the need to label it. Second – the term.
I think I have heard ‘milk box’ for the aluminum ones w/ lids that the milkman left bottles for customers in (& which were probably enamel or wood or nonexistent prior to the aluminum ones?); but weren’t these kind (later of metal wire & finally plastic) always called ‘crates’.
‘deposit case digging’ vs. ‘crate digging’ does not work for me!
March 5, 2018 at 5:28 pm |
Hahaha…I was born in 1954 in a small Southeastern Iowa town and still remember our old-timey 2 letter number. Ours was DR2, I’m thinking that stood for Drake, but have no idea what that would relate to as far as a location. Was updated to 372. And yes, we were on a party line! Not sure if siblings got into trouble while listening in!
March 6, 2018 at 5:43 am |
[…] Source: FS – NYC Real Estate An old Bronx phone number on a wood milk crate […]
March 8, 2018 at 12:16 am |
Very cool artifact.
March 8, 2018 at 12:55 am |
A related webpage on telephone exchanges notes:
“The following is a list of recommended names for dialable/quotable telephone EXchange names. It comes from AT&T/Bell’s publication ‘Notes on Nationwide Dialing, 1955’. Many cities with EXchange names had for decades been using names which are not from this list, and they were not necessarily required to change the names. These names were supposed to have been chosen such that pronouncing the name should easily identify the first two significant dialable letters of the word, as well as quoting the two letters themselves wasn’t supposed to be confused with other ‘like-sounding’ letters which were associated with different numbers on the dial.
[…]
“59
LYceum
LYndhurst
LYnwood
LYric”
http://ourwebhome.com/TENP/Recommended.html
March 8, 2018 at 4:53 am |
Great info, thanks Bob!
March 8, 2021 at 4:13 am |
[…] exchanges, which were replaced by numerals in the early 1960s. But they’re out there—especially in the boroughs outside […]