Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters

Take your next trip with Atlas Obscura!

Our small-group adventures are inspired by our Atlas of the world's most fascinating places, the stories behind them, and the people who bring them to life.

Visit Adventures
Trips Highlight
A view of Brașov’s Old Town.
Romania • 12 days, 11 nights
Legends of Romania: Castles, Ruins & Culinary Delights
from
Balkans road trip
Bosnia and Herzegovina • 9 days, 8 nights
Balkans Road Trip: Serbia, Croatia & Bosnia and Herzegovina
from
View all trips
Top Destinations
Latest Places
Most Popular Places Random Place Lists Itineraries
Add a Place
Download the App
Top Destinations
View All Destinations »

Countries

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • China
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Italy
  • Japan

Cities

  • Amsterdam
  • Barcelona
  • Beijing
  • Berlin
  • Boston
  • Budapest
  • Chicago
  • London
  • Los Angeles
  • Mexico City
  • Montreal
  • Moscow
  • New Orleans
  • New York City
  • Paris
  • Philadelphia
  • Rome
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Stockholm
  • Tokyo
  • Toronto
  • Vienna
  • Washington, D.C.
Latest Places
View All Places »
The Sea Water Distilling Plant.
Sea Water Distilling Plant
Contemplative paths.
Ayo Rock Formations
Parking Lot Shoeprints
Dewey Square Pylon & Bent 38
Latest Places to Eat & Drink
View All Places to Eat »
The pavlova comes crowned with jewel-like fruit.
Central Park Boathouse
The Village Tavern of Long Grove - exterior.
The Village Tavern
Hunter House Hamburgers
L’Escamoteur
Names on the bartop.
The Dive
Recent Stories
All Stories Video Podcast
Most Recent Stories
View All Stories »
Beneath downtown Minneapolis, Schieks Cave has surprisingly warm groundwater, evidence of a subterranean heat island.
Schieks Cave Below Minneapolis Contains a Lake of Warm Sewage
about 9 hours ago
Athenaeus described various kinds of Greek drinking vessels, like the deep, rounded skyphos and wide, flat kylix.
The Ancient Greek Guide to Succeeding at Dinner Parties
1 day ago
No thanks.
AO Mailbag: Which Places Just Aren’t Worth Visiting?
2 days ago
Benshi would introduce and provide commentary for films like A Page of Madness.
Remembering the Heyday of Japan’s Silent Film Narrators
3 days ago

No search results found for
“”

Make sure words are spelled correctly.

Try searching for a travel destination.

Places near me Random place

Popular Destinations

  • Paris
  • London
  • New York
  • Berlin
  • Rome
  • Los Angeles
Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Sign In Join
Places near me Random place
All the United States New York State New York City Manhattan Phone Booth Graveyard
Phone Booth Graveyard is permanently closed.

This entry remains in the Atlas as a record of its history, but it is no longer accessible to visitors.

Phone Booth Graveyard

The phone booths of New York City have all but disappeared, but their remains were once found in this "graveyard," sadly now removed as well.

New York, New York

Added By
Rachel James
Email
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list
  Dave Bledsoe, FreeVerse Photography
  Dave Bledsoe, FreeVerse Photography
  Dave Bledsoe, FreeVerse Photography
  Dave Bledsoe, FreeVerse Photography
  Dave Bledsoe, FreeVerse Photography
  Dave Bledsoe, FreeVerse Photography
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list

About

The convenience of the cell phone and its complete saturation of our culture has deemed it practically a necessity, making the common phone booth a thing of the past. But where do these large, obsolete phone boxes go when they die?

For decades, tall, stately phone booths stood on nearly every street as a comforting sign that connection was merely a bit of pocket change away. One of the dinosaurs of communication technology, phone booths were a former staple in any city or town, large or small. In a time when people had numbers memorized or scratched onto matchbooks and needed to call home when out in the world, phone booths were there to make sure there was a way to reach out and touch those you loved—or make an anonymous phone call that couldn't be traced.

Film and TV used them as the perfect iconic setting for when superheroes needed a place to change outfits, lonely travelers needed a place to get out of the rain and hear their lover's voice, or violent outbursts occurred as one person took their sweet time with no regard to someone else waiting their turn. The solution to countless problems and the refuge to a myriad of characters, the phone booth is forever branded on the face of modern culture.

Despite their permanent place in the history of the 20th century, the phone booth has been falling swiftly into extinction since the stratospheric rise of the cell phone, a convenience and technology with which the antiquated booth simply can't compete. In New York, you'd be hard pressed to find someone on the bustling streets without their trusty pocket computer, and the formerly trusty phone booths are few and far in-between, so where have they gone?

There's no accounting for all of them, but at least 100 of them resided underneath the elevated railroad tracks near 135th Street and 12th Avenue in a decaying collection of a bygone era. Like many other cities, New York has found the structures no longer good for much besides art installations or decoration, so they stored them here and there, out of the way, in piles of rusted metal being referred to as "Phone Booth Graveyards. 

Although the archaic communication tool seems quickly on its way out, New York City's information technology and telecommunications department states that there are still roughly 10,524 public pay phones still in service along the city's sidewalks, 5,429 of which operator in Manhattan. Where and when they will finally be put to rest is anyone's guess. 

Sadly, as of January 2014, the old phone booths had reportedly been removed.  

Related Tags

Telephones Phone Booths Lost Wonders Retro Tech Graveyards Object Cemeteries Cemeteries

Community Contributors

Added By

Rachel

Edited By

hrnick

  • hrnick

Published

January 19, 2014

Edit this listing

Make an Edit
Add Photos
Sources
  • http://spacing.ca/national/2013/06/19/graveyard-for-new-yorks-vanishing-telephone-booths/
  • http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2013/06/where-new-yorks-old-telephone-booths-go-die/5951/
  • http://flawedcreations.wordpress.com/2013/11/08/why-a-phone-booth-graveyard/
Phone Booth Graveyard
698 W 135th St
New York, New York
United States
40.821232, -73.958873
Get Directions

Nearby Places

Amiable Child Monument

New York, New York

miles away

President Ulysses S. Grant's Tomb

New York, New York

miles away

Hamilton Grange

New York, New York

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of New York

New York

New York

Places 406
Stories 89

Nearby Places

Amiable Child Monument

New York, New York

miles away

President Ulysses S. Grant's Tomb

New York, New York

miles away

Hamilton Grange

New York, New York

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of New York

New York

New York

Places 406
Stories 89

Related Places

  • The boat cemetery.

    Saint-Malo, France

    Quelmer Boat Graveyard

    Old vessels have been transformed into artistic canvases in this unusual cemetery.

  • The trains have been rusting away for decades at the cemetery.

    Thessaloniki, Greece

    Thessaloniki Train Cemetery

    Thousands of rusting train cars have been slowly falling apart on the edge of Greece's second largest city.

  • Paju, South Korea

    Military Cemetery for North Korean Soldiers

    A seldom-visited resting place for North Korean soldiers and spies.

  • “ANDREAS MORGENRØDT – Time Traveller – 1996–2064”

    Copenhagen, Denmark

    The Time Traveler's Grave

    Hidden in plain sight, a gravestone seemingly inscribed from the future stands among the cemetery’s historic tombs.

  • Allinge, Denmark

    The Russian Cemetery in Allinge

    World War II Soviet Russian soldiers were buried on the Danish island after the war had ended.

  • Bath, England

    Grey K2 Phone Booth

    An iconic British fixture in an unconventional color.

  • From the entrance.

    Cork, Ireland

    Temple Hill Cemetery in Ballintemple

    Both Catholic and Protestant graves dot this 17th-century burial ground.

  • The Honolulu Memorial is located at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

    Honolulu, Hawaii

    National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific

    Hawaii’s largest cemetery rests inside an extinct volcano crater.

Aerial image of Vietnam, displaying the picturesque rice terraces, characterized by their layered, verdant fields.
Atlas Obscura Membership

Become an Atlas Obscura Member


Join our community of curious explorers.

Become a Member

Get Our Email Newsletter

Follow Us

Facebook YouTube TikTok Instagram Pinterest RSS Feed

Get the app

Download the App
Download on the Apple App Store Get it on Google Play
  • All Places
  • Latest Places
  • Most Popular
  • Places to Eat
  • Random
  • Nearby
  • Add a Place
  • Stories
  • Food & Drink
  • Itineraries
  • Lists
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
  • All Trips
  • Family Trip
  • Food & Drink
  • History & Culture
  • Wildlife & Nature
  • FAQ
  • Membership
  • Feedback & Ideas
  • Community Guidelines
  • Product Blog
  • Unique Gifts
  • Work With Us
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Advertise With Us
  • Advertising Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
Atlas Obscura

© 2025 Atlas Obscura. All Rights Reserved.