This might not be for everyone. Some may not think that a phone booth makes a worthy virtual cache. I find them to be a sort of modern, urban relic and enjoy spotting the rare, remaining examples. Generally, they only seem to be disappearing, but this one seems to be relatively newly revitalized. I found it, while playing "hooky" from work on the day of the "Great East Coast Earthquake of 2011".
I'd previously attempted to start a PBP series on another site, but the ones I published ended up being removed shortly after I listed the caches. If you would like to add to the series, feel free. Just remember that PBP is for Phone Booth Project - not just any pay phone. They dont' all have to be virtuals, either. If you find one near home, you could use it as part of a multi or puzzle.
The following is excerpted from a 1991 AT&T press release:
The booths that house pay phones have undergone more design changes than the phones themselves. At the turn of the century, indoor booths were constructed of durable hardwood, such as mahogany, with comfort and privacy in mind, and exhibited detailed craftsmanship. They were often carpeted.The "original" telephone booth is credited to Thomas Watson, the man who helped Alexander Graham Bell invent the telephone. Watson's "booth" was made by draping blankets over the furniture in his room and crawling underneath to conduct early telephone experiments. One story says Watson, in order to hear, was insulating himself from street noises. Another story is that his landlady ordered Watson to be quieter; his shouting, albeit for the sake of science, was disturbing other boarders.
In 1883 Watson designed a real booth. It was built of expensive wood, had a domed top with a ventilator, windows with screens, and a desk with pen and ink.
Over the years, telephone booths have reflected their surroundings as well as the times. There have been phone booths resembling cable cars in San Francisco, and others resembling pagodas in New York City's Chinatown district. In the 1960s, as American architects designed glass-wall office buildings, wooden phone booths looked out of place in lobbies. Bell Laboratories designed an indoor glass and metal phone booth to better fit newer surroundings.
Not all of the designs for phone booths have reached the market. An experimental "hands-free" booth in 1972 featured a microphone in front of the caller and a loudspeaker in the booth's ceiling. Observers noted that people readily tried the new arrangement but that, conditioned to speaking in the direction another voice is coming from, they were all shouting into the ceiling.
Logging Requirements:
1) Visit the site, in person.
2) As you enter, look up. You will see a sticker. Locate the box below "Wired Outdoor Telephone Booth". Inside the box is a number, "B-1/xxxxx". The Log Password is xxxxx.
3) Also, please post a picture of yourself and / or your GPS in the phone booth.