Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!casbah.acns.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: martin@cellar.bellcore.com (Martin Harriss (ACP)) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Your Evolving Phone Number Message-ID: Date: 19 Feb 91 20:06:13 GMT Sender: news@casbah.acns.nwu.edu Reply-To: "Martin Harriss (ACP" Organization: Bellcore Lines: 31 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 133, Message 3 of 11 Originator: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu In article AAT@vtmsl.bitnet (Asif Taiyabi) writes: >When neighborhood and street names started to run out, the Bell System >recommended new names. Bell of Pennsylvania looked to trees, so >Pittsburgh and Philadelphia wound up in the 1930s with shared names >like Locust, Poplar, and Walnut. Interesting. Central Philadelphia has a Walnut Street, a Locust Street and a Poplar Street. These are important thorofares, I'm sure they existed in the 1930's. So which came first? the street or the telephone exchange? Martin Harriss martin@cellar.bae.bellcore.com [Moderator's Note: The locations came first, obviously, and the exchange names later. The exchanges tended to be named after the geographic area, the street they were on or a prominent nearby spot, such as our GRAceland, located in the proximity of the cemetery by the same name. Sometimes current events / politics was a factor: 312-842 (VICtory) was the first new dial exchange created in 1946 when manual ==> dial conversion was resumed following a four year hiatus during World War II due to Western Electric's manufacturing facilities being used full time by the government during the war. The CO had not existed at all before the war: Overcrowded conditions in the CALumet (312-225) CO which had to be tolerated during the war were alleviated by breaking off a couple thousand subscribers and placing them on the new CO when it opened ... just like an area code split today! :) PAT]