Rant: That secret alley behind the laundromat had a working phone booth from 1992

I was walking home from a bar around 2 AM last Tuesday in Portland and took a shortcut behind this old laundromat. There's this tiny brick alley I've passed maybe 50 times but never went down. Inside there's a legit Bell payphone from like the early 90s, still has the handset and everything. I picked it up out of curiosity and it had a dial tone. No joke. I called my buddy just to prove it worked. How does that even still get service in 2025? I checked online later and apparently some city ordinances force telecoms to keep them running if they're still standing. Has anyone else stumbled onto something like this that just shouldn't work anymore?

3 comments

3 Comments

fiona98512d ago

Did your buddy think you were messing with him? My friend found a working payphone in a broken-down gas station bathroom outside Boise and nobody believed him until he showed us the video.

claire_gibson12d ago

Bet your buddy's phone pinged off some ancient switch that's been collecting dust since 2005. Those old copper lines are basically ghosts, just hanging around until somebody finally yanks them out. Wonder how many other random payphones are still technically alive out there.

patricia5589d ago

@fiona985 that Boise story sounds about right, copper's stubborn stuff. Just cool knowing somethings still hanging on.