Photo from the book New York, by Bill Harris, published in 1979 by Mayflower Press. Amazon.com’s product description for this underrated book is hilariously off base. This is a coffee table picture book of New York in the 1970s, but at present Amazon describes “New York” as an “interactive workbook designed to entertain, teach and stimulate children to learn more about the area where they live…” Not even close, Amazon!

Pagoda-crowned payphone enclosures of this style still exist in New York’s Chinatown, in Boston’s Chinatown, and in other Chinatowns throughout the U.S. and Canada.