Looking to rent loft space in Chinatown? You probably won't have much luck calling the Riker & Co. Real Estate firm at the barely readable Exchange Name Number of JUdson 6-0800. In today's numbering that phone number -- 212-588-0800 -- would ring up the folks at Frommer Lawrence & Haug LLP.

According to an advertisement on this page at Fultonhistory.com, Riker & Co. also had a Brooklyn office where their Exchange Name Number was TRiangle 5-1234. The only other JUdson Exchange Name I've seen lately was in retro-chic usage on the receipt from Frank Music Company in midtown.

It might be interesting to explore connections between this Riker company and the famous Riker family whose name graces the Riker's Island prison complex. The Riker family had a long history in New York, where to this day the Lent-Riker-Smith House with its Riker Family Cemetery in the back yard is believed to be the oldest continuously-inhabited dwelling in the United States.

Created on

Saturday 12 December 2009

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JUdson

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• Telephone Exchange Names