Sad pay phone of the week: The pay phone at 17th and Market

Steven Pierce

Location: On Market Street between 16th and 17th.

Number: Unknown.

Status: Operable.

Price: 50 cents for local calls.

Photo Taken: 4 p.m. on May 10.

This phone is the equivalent of a wet dog. Not a dog that's happy to be wet, but a soaked stray covered in fleas with leprosy.

From the looks of its cracked phone book, which dangles like the body in a bad game of Hangman, the phone could have been in the middle of a riot.

On top of that, the phone book's yellow pages have turned brown. They seem to have been used for something other than finding a good restaurant.

Steven Pierce

The phone appears to be stuck in time. With dust caked onto its weathered body, it resembles an artifact from a post-apocalyptic Kevin Costner movie.

But spend a mere 50 cents -- the same amount animal-rescue commercials ask us to fork over to save stray dogs -- and you can bring it back to life. Temporarily, at least.

For more sad pay phones, visit our Sad Pay Phone archive.