What year did phone numbers switch from having letters and numbers in them to just numbers only?

Question

For example,Broadway-96622.

Answer 1

Mid-70s, apparently:

"When telephone numbers in the US were standardized in the mid-20th century, they were made seven digits long, including a two-digit prefix, the latter expressed as letters rather than numbers. (Before World War II, many localities used three letters and four numbers, and in much of California during this period, phone numbers had only six digits — two letters followed by four numbers.) The prefix was a name, and the first two or three letters (usually shown in capitals) of the name were dialed. Later, the third letter (where previously used) was replaced by a number; this generally happened after World War II, although New York City did this in 1930. Thus, the famous Glenn Miller tune "PEnnsylvania 6-5000" refers to a telephone number 736-5000, the number of the Hotel Pennsylvania, which still bears the same number today. Similarly, the classic Elizabeth Taylor film "BUtterfield 8" refers to the section of New York City where the film is set, where the telephone prefixes include 288 (on the East Side of Manhattan between roughly 64th and 86th Streets). This is why, in some works of fiction, phone numbers will begin with "KLondike 5" or "KLamath 5", which translates to 555, a mostly unused and reserved exchange. This practice continues in film and television to this day, even though the prefix system has long been unused.
Today this system has been abandoned (in fact it generally stopped by the mid-1970s), but alphabetic dialing remains as a commercial mnemonic gimmick, particularly when combined with toll-free numbers."

Answer 2

I'm 48 and when I was a kid I remember it as being with letters. Now, in reality it was always numbers; the words were there to help people remember the number with Broadway being a part of town but the phone company held it as 276 (BROadway). You could tell an operator either way and your call would still go through.

I'd say it was about 1970 that letters were dropped entirely.

Answer 3

Here's the deal from an old lady who was there, and this was in LA. We did not have a phone until about 1953. However, at that time phone numbers were limited to four, example 2124. Soon because population quickly grew in the 'early 50's, the phone company added prefixes, so now we had AL ( Albany) 2124. In the late '50's or so, more people necessitated longer phone numbers so AL. was soon changed to CL 5-2124. This was in the early '60's, but not long after that, with so many phones out there, prefixes became too much to deal with. So phone companies disposed of them altogether.

Answer 4

It was in the mid 1960's

Area Codes went into effect in 1947