The Last San Francisco Phone Booth

The last SF phone booth

Large kiosk-type enclosure located at a gas station, 2015 Saratoga Sunnyvale Rd40

Introduction(my little story about finding the last phone booth in SF)

Payphones, while quite rare in San Francisco, can still be seen. Now in SF, there are a handful of payphones still around, particularly in the BART train stations. One thing that I've found lacking is SF is a proper phone booth. There are still kiosk-like stands, or payphones embedded into walls, but no 3/4 sided enclosed booths. The closest thing to a full-on booth is a kiosk type that has large walls on 3 sides (pictured left) at a gas station.

The journey & discovery

The journey that led me to the phone booth was a bit interesting. Late one night, I came across a stock image of a phone booth, saying that it was in SF, near the Golden Gate Bridge. The photo showed a phone booth up against a wall, with a parking meter to the left and an air pump to the right, leading me to believe it was in a parking lot. I immediately started scouring the area for a parking lot with a wall or building, with perhaps a service station and air pump. I had found a parking lot that fit the description: Battery Cranston Rd parking lot, near the Golden Gate Bridge. Going onto Google Street View revealed the very same photo of the phone booth, which was still there as of 5 months ago, when the streetview photo was taken. The next day, I rode a bus to that parking lot. I came across a beautiful sight; the phone booth was still there, in all its 1980s glory.

The phone's number is (415) 345-9785

Making a call

Stepping into the phone booth was like stepping into a time capsule. The phone was operated by PTS (the biggest payphone operator in the US), which was a promising sign. I lifted the handset, and there was sadly no dial tone. I tried fiddling with the hookswitch, which felt loose, and after a minute, the dial tone came back! I was ecstatic, seeing as there was still a functional payphone booth in my city. I dropped in 2 quarters (the cost of a local call nowadays) and dialed my dad, upon which I received a busy signal. I tried several more times until the phone ate all my quarters. After that, I tried using my phone card. I had to try using the phone card 3 times until my mom picked up. We had a good long chat for about 10 minutes, but then my bus was about to arrive. I snapped a few more pics and caught the next bus.

Day is awesome,

but night is cooler!

The booth itself

The booth was dusty, with a little bit of graffiti, but overall in great condition. The door's sliding track was broken, but it still closed and wasn't much of a problem. All the glass and metal panels were still fully intact, which was surprising as I was expecting many cracks and dents. The interior ring light was even on! My favorite part was the various phone numbers scratched into the aluminum pillars. Someone even played a game of tic-tac-toe. One unfortunate thing is that looking back on Google Maps 7 years ago, there was still a phone book and a table, which would have been cool to see. The mounting holes for the table are still in the sides.

Additional photos

This photo is a personal favorite of mine, it was taken on my Nokia 6300 4g and looks kind of liminal with the poor camera quality.

Is this tic tac toe?

A few months later, I came to check up on the phone again in December. A payphone serviceman has definitely come to check the phone - the hookswitch was repaired, and I reliably could dial with quarters.

I have now found (what I believe) is the last, open-air freestanding phone booth, here in San Francisco. Perhaps you could find an indoor phone booth, likely embedded in a wall, but those are not typically accessible to the public so I count this as a win!