US Area Codes

Area code were first used by AT&T in 1951, does anyone know when the US stopped using the first two letters of the city for area codes such as TW3-0333?
I know I still heard them being used when I was a kid in the late 1960s but were gone by 69 or 70 I believe

can anyone verify this through consecutive phone books or catalogs with ads from that era?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_numbering_plan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Numbering_Plan

And I imagine some moderator will be booting this to another forum....

Vampiress RN was nice enough to PM me directly (and not publicly here, thereby letting everyone know I can't search Wikipedia myself) and let me know that this info is readily available on Wikipedia although its frustratingly vague.

Here is what Wiki says:
the two digit letters referring to an area, followed by the third number "generally happened after World War II, although New York City did this in 1930. Thus, the famous Glenn Miller tune "PEnnsylvania 6-5000" refers to a telephone number 736-5000, the number of the Hotel Pennsylvania, which still bears the same number today. Similarly, the classic film "BUtterfield 8" is set in the East Side of Manhattan between roughly 64th and 86th Streets, where the telephone prefixes include 288. This is why, in some works of fiction, phone numbers will begin with "KLondike 5" or "KLamath 5", which translates to 555, an exchange that is unused in most areas.

The letter system was phased out, beginning before 1965 (though it persisted ten years later in some places, and was included in Bell of Pennsylvania directories until 1983)"

So the addition of the numbers could be anywhere from 1930 - 1951, maybe?
and the disappearance or transition away from letters is somewhere between 1965 and 1975, or 1983 if you are in Pennsylvania!?!

I was specifically wondering in regards to this post
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=40053&forum=2&vpost=608802
So specifically my question would be, when did the letters stop being used in the Oakland area (Northern California) on business postings such as ads and match covers

I remember having the 2 letters back in the 50's when I lived in San Diego...funny how our dials still have letters an now some businesses use the letters to help folks remember their number.

This might be what you are looking for...still from Wikipedia...

^ San Francisco and Oakland each had their own separate toll-switches, so calls had to be routed accordingly depending on the final destination. As the telephone equipment used at the time could only handle three-digit translation, the temporary use of area code 318 was required in order to distinguish between the two areas. Area code 318 was temporarily used to specify San Francisco and areas north of the Golden Gate, while calls with destinations in Oakland and the East Bay continued to use area code 415. When the electromechanical card-translator box became available sometime during 1952–53, 6-digit translation became possible and the use of area code 318 was no longer required. Area code 318 was reclaimed for future use and the entire San Francisco Bay Area returned to using area code 415.[1]

I guess nobody remembers the song by the Marvelettes, Beechwood 4-5789.

Growing up in Connecticut, our number was an Oldfield exchange, but changed in the 60s to 65 (O = 6 on the dial; L = 5. That was when you could get party lines and didn't have to use area codes.

I guess nobody remembers the song by the Marvelettes, Beechwood 4-5789.

I don't remember that tune when it was a hit, but I know it. Also Bigelow (6-2-Oh-Oh) and Lonesome 77203

Wasn't the word prefix (such as Bigelow, Lonesome, etc) on a phone number actually called an exchange? Area codes designate a larger geographic area.

I remember as a kid in the early 70s that some older people still used a word to designate an exchange number and some phones still had them on the dial but no contemporary print material used word exchanges. Because of that I usually figure old printed material I find with a word exchange on it to be no later than 1970.

If we are using songs to establish a timeframe, then we know those prefixes were gone before 1982 or Tommy Tutone would have sang TOnga7-5309/Jenny instead :D

I remember that song Gnoman.

This is an interesting quest you have taken us on Otto. :lol:

Here are articles on the exchanges...don't see your specific inquiry though:
http://ourwebhome.com/TENP/TENproject.html
http://www.digparty.com/wiki/digplanet/Category:Technology/Category:Energy/Category:Electricity/Category:Electronics/Category:Telecommunications/Category:Telephony/Category:Telephone_numbers/Telephone_exchange_names
http://rcrowe.brinkster.net/tensearch.aspx

Perhaps contacting AT&T would help find your answer. I am at a dead-end.

8675309

I grew up in the Sunset district of San Francisco. Lombard 6-5899 was my number. I was born in '56 and we had that number 'till well into the 60's.

I grew up in Torrance, CA, and all the way into the early 70s, our number was FRontier 5-3116.