How long has Abetta Boiler & Welding Service been building and repairing the infrastructure of New York City?
At least since 1957, according to a listing in the Greater New York Industrial Directory.
And that makes sense, based on the old two-letter phone exchange that’s still on the company sign over a garage on East First Street in the East Village.
GR for Gramercy? Greenwich? It’s hard to know, as it’s been more than 50 years since the two-letter exchanges were phased out in favor of digits.
It’s getting harder to spot some of these old exchanges on signs and storefronts, but the Abetta sign stands as a reminder of what phone numbers used to look like in New York.
The artwork on the garage door is an appropriate ode to an old-school Manhattan business, too.
Tags: Abetta Boiler and Welding, Abetta East Village, East Village old signs, old New York phone exchanges, Old Store Signs East Village, two-letter phone exchanges
Ephemeral New York 
April 8, 2019 at 3:05 am |
What’s even weirder is that the sign is clearly recent based on the font (Arial) the phone number is set in.
April 8, 2019 at 3:20 am |
Gramercy, according to https://www.nydailynews.com/connection-telephone-exchanges-gave-line-neighborhood-article-1.752800
April 8, 2019 at 3:24 am |
Ah, Gramercy! I didn’t even notice the font, but interesting catch.
April 8, 2019 at 4:12 pm |
In the past, I located an exhaustive database of alphanumeric exchanges, I think specifically for NYC but possibly nationwide, which I wish I had bookmarked since I can no longer summon it up. In any case, these helpful bits of information did appear while I searched and may be of interest to anyone who feels like plunging further down this particular rabbit hole.
http://tenproject.cloudapp.net/tensearch.aspx
Click to access MaBell.pdf
April 8, 2019 at 11:52 am |
Doesn’t the New York public library have old Manhattan telephone directories? They used to specify the exchange not just with the first two letters but—in smaller type—the rest of the exchange name. One could look up Abetta in, day, the 1960 directory and discover whether the phone number was in the Gramercy or the Greenwich exchange.
April 8, 2019 at 12:04 pm |
Very interesting interior view with bonus.
April 8, 2019 at 12:05 pm |
oops, please add this to my previous comment
April 8, 2019 at 3:31 pm |
Great find! (The video). 🙂
April 8, 2019 at 3:41 pm
Wonderful, that’s what the Lower East Side was about in the 60’s 70’s!
April 9, 2019 at 2:30 pm |
Yes, NYPL has NYC directories as does the NYC Municipal Archives.
April 10, 2019 at 3:39 am |
jerry m., thank you for linking to my Abetta Salsa video! What a nice surprise to see while looking through one of my favorite NYC blogs. 🙂
Mykola, I happened upon this scene in 2011 but yes, it was reminiscent of the early LES days, wasn’t it?
April 16, 2019 at 12:44 am |
The telephone exchange is GRamercy 3
March 8, 2021 at 4:13 am |
[…] on an unremarkable building on West 47th Street in the Diamond District: an old-school New York City phone exchange, in this case […]