Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
The last public payphone in NYC has been removed from Midtown
By
Ben Yakas
Published May 23, 2022
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
LinkNYC
By
Ben Yakas
Published May 23, 2022
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Midtown Manhattan said goodbye to a long-standing resident on Monday when the city's last working public payphone was officially removed from the area.
“As a native New Yorker, saying goodbye to the last street payphone is bittersweet because of the prominent place they’ve held in the city's physical landscape for decades," said Matthew Fraser, NYC's Commissioner of the Office of Technology and Innovation. "Just like we transitioned from the horse and buggy to the automobile and from the automobile to the airplane, the digital evolution has progressed from payphones to high-speed Wi-Fi kiosks to meet the demands of our rapidly changing daily communications needs."
The payphone isn't being sent to the scrapyard though: it's headed to the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) as part of their new exhibit Analog City: NYC BC (Before Computers), which looks back at pre-digital life in the city.
"It's really fortuitous, I have to say," Lilly Tuttle, the curator of the show, told Gothamist about the museum's unexpected acquisition.
The city reached out to the museum last week to see if they were interested in taking the payphone. It just happens that the exhibit, which had long been in the works, opened last Friday.
"The fact that we had just opened an exhibition on this topic really made it a no-brainer," she said. "In the exhibition, we talk about the fact that people made plans and navigated the city and did things for decades and decades before cell phones. We were New Yorkers before and we're New Yorkers now, and whether or not we have payphones doesn't necessarily symbolize the end of anything, just a change in the way we communicate."
The payphone being interviewed before being removed from the ground.
LinkNYC
The removal of the payphone, located at 745 7th Ave., does mark the end of an era of coin-operated communication in New York City. This process began almost a decade ago, when Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched a competition to reimagine the payphone. Then in 2014, under Mayor Bill de Blasio, the consortium known as City Bridge were chosen to launch LinkNYC to replace them. Starting a year later, the booths were slowly-but-surely removed from every corner of the city, with most sent to a payphone graveyard by 2020.
LinkNYC, the digital monoliths that are now ubiquitous throughout the five boroughs, have become familiar sights to New Yorkers, whether they're updating people on the weather and their commute times, advertising local art, blasting the Mister Softee jingle, or smashed to pieces.
The communications network says they've facilitated over three billion Wi-Fi sessions with more than 10 million subscribers. Later this year, they will be expanding their network with 5G service.
While this is the last city-owned public payphone in NYC, there are a few private payphones still on public property, and there are four permanent full-length "Superman booths" still out there. They are located on West End Avenue around 66th, 90th, 100th and 101st streets.
Tuttle, the MCNY curator, says she isn't surprised by all the interest around the end of the payphone.
"There's a lot of curiosity around this payphone," she said. "In just a few days since the exhibition has been open, I really have come to appreciate how many people are fascinated by bygone technology. And as we see things changing, and we're reminded of how rapidly our technology has advanced in recent decades, I think people have these moments of realizing how different things are."
Of course, it's hard not to feel a rush of emotions when you realize that the 2002 Joel Schumacher film Phone Booth, in which Colin Farrell is held hostage in a Times Square phone booth, is now a period piece.
Farewell brave payphone, may you call collect from the giant phone booth in the sky.
LinkNYC
Tagged
midtown manhattan
Times Square
payphones
telecommunications
linknyc
outdated technology
payphone
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Central Park birders, others remember 63-year-old woman killed in park
People who said they knew her described her as an artist and a familiar presence in the Ramble.
By
Charles Lane
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 7:04 p.m. ET
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
News
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .