Good reception saves Prairie Grove phone booth

Facebook posts prompt fix after vehicle hits town staple

David Parks, president of the Prairie Grove Telephone Co., shows the damage to the telephone booth that was located in front of the Colonial Motel on U.S. 62 in Prairie Grove for four decades.The booth was hit Saturday by a Chevy Tahoe.
David Parks, president of the Prairie Grove Telephone Co., shows the damage to the telephone booth that was located in front of the Colonial Motel on U.S. 62 in Prairie Grove for four decades.The booth was hit Saturday by a Chevy Tahoe.

PRAIRIE GROVE -- For at least 40 years, a telephone booth has stood next to U.S. 62 across from the entrance to Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park. For many, it was an anachronistic icon in a city that prides itself on the past.

On Saturday, the telephone booth was plowed down by a 2003 Chevrolet Tahoe.

Mary Cantrell, 67, of Lincoln told police she fell asleep behind the wheel of the sport utility vehicle. She had been up all night getting things ready for a yard sale.

Traveling west on U.S. 62 at 12:46 p.m. Saturday, Cantrell's Tahoe crossed the oncoming traffic lane and went about 200 feet off the highway, according to a police report. The vehicle also hit a telephone pole and demolished a rock gaslight base that had been in front of the Colonial Motel since 1938.

David Parks, president of Prairie Grove Telephone Co., said he thought about not replacing the phone booth. The company collects coins from the telephone in the booth once every six months, he said.

"There would be like $2 in change in it," Parks said.

But then he heard Sunday that the phone booth had a rather large following on the Internet. On the Facebook page for Prairie Grove, a post Sunday read: "RIP to the Colonial Court telephone booth, a reminder of simpler times gone."

The post got more than 30 comments Sunday from people lamenting what was believed to be the booth's permanent demise.

"This was the only 'working' pay phone booth that I knew still existed ..." wrote Secretary of State Mark Martin, who is from Prairie Grove. "It was one of the many many small things that makes Prairie Grove special to us."

State Rep. Charlene Fite, R-Van Buren, also commented.

"Oh no!" she wrote. "I loved that phone booth."

Some suggested a fundraising drive to save it.

Parks said the comments persuaded him to repair and replace the phone booth.

"We do plan to put it back," he said. "There was only slight damage, so with a few little bends and tweaks, we think we can get it back and the phone working again."

Parks said it shouldn't cost much to repair the booth, but he didn't have an estimate Monday.

Guy Matthews, who owns the Colonial Motel, said that he witnessed the accident Saturday and that Cantrell appeared to be unhurt.

Matthews said the phone booth was there when he bought the motel 40 years ago.

The telephone company has paid him $5 a month since then for electricity from the motel to operate a light in the booth, he said.

Worried that someone might steal the phone booth, several men dragged it behind the old Colonial Cafe building on Saturday, said Matthews.

Susan Parks-Spencer, a member of the telephone company's board, and others loaded the phone booth onto a flatbed trailer Sunday and hauled it to the telephone company's warehouse.

On Monday, it was sitting in the warehouse with shattered plastic panes and still-visible etchings in the aluminum.

"Alan [hearts] Anna," was the message by the door.

Parks said the phone booth is the last one operated by the Prairie Grove Telephone Co.

The company still has 15 pay phones, down from 42 a decade ago, but only one is in a booth.

"I don't know of one anywhere else," he said. "I guess that's really the novelty of it, being in a booth. That's just not seen anymore."

Bill Dennis, manager of telecommunications and quality of service for the Arkansas Public Service Commission, said the commission has no list of telephone booths around the state.

He seemed surprised that there still was one.

"So it had a booth with a door that opened and shut and everything?" he asked.

Parks and Matthews said the telephone booth was a popular place for people to take photos. It was almost a tourist attraction in itself.

"People driving by would see that and have to stop and get out and take pictures of their kids and things like that," Matthews said.

"We joke about that a lot," Parks said. "We see more people there taking pictures ... than actually using the phone."

James Spencer, husband of Parks-Spencer, said it was in a high-visibility location next to the highway at the entrance to the state park.

"If there was a Prairie Grove postage stamp, the telephone booth would probably be on it," Spencer said. "Well, they would probably put the park on it, but telephone booth would be a close second."

Parks-Spencer said one of her first jobs involved cleaning telephone booths, and she remembers the one in front of the Colonial Motel in particular.

"People would chew tobacco and spit in it," she said.

Martin sent a message saying he was grateful to hear the booth will be back: "For the people of Prairie Grove, I think the phone booth is not a symbol of wistful memories of days gone by; instead, it is one point in the dot-to-dot of events, past and future, that outlines who we are as a community."

Metro on 06/10/2014

Upcoming Events