30th Anniversary of the 100th Anniversary Payphone
Published: 7/31/19
2019 is the thirtieth Anniversary of the 100th Anniversary Payphone. For most people if you walk past it you will think it is a standard run of the mill payphone. This was a specially made presentation piece that commemorated the 100th Anniversary of the payphone. I've only seen 2 of these in all my years collecting payphones. It was produced by AT&T in the Shreveport LA plant in 1989 wile it was still open. It looks like many of the parts were pulled off the line before they were completed and then modified for this phone. By the way, it is not a payphone it is a regular wall phone in it's configuration. The housing parts, the upper and the lower were cut so that the total thickness of the phone is much thinner than a real payphone, there are less layers (just one) of metal unlike a real payphone. Both the upper and lower housings are welded together creating one piece. The normal punched out holes for the locks and the T key opening on the side aren't there. The real payphone chrome face plate was modified, where an armored cable would normally go through a round hole this one has a rectangular cutout with a modular jack in it. The coin return bucket is standard and is glued in place on the inside. The vault door is standard, it can be taken off and put back on with a T key. Behind the door is a custom made coin receptacle that was produced thinner than a standard one so that it would fit inside the phone. Looking at the back of the phone you can see where a network, ringer and modular jack were added to the dial assembly, plug a modular cord into the jack and the phone works . There is a thin curved metal chute that begins at the coin slot and ends just above the coin box which takes coins put into the slot to the box, just for fun. The wood board and somewhat crude looking mounting brackets are original, the board was made to mount on a wall with the line cord going through the hole and the phone hangs from it.