Old neighborhood exchange lives on

(Rafael Alvarez) - This is the story of my grandparents’ telephone number — Eastern 7-5254 — the only one they ever had; the one assigned to them by the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. before numbers replaced neighborhood exchanges. Long before you had to use an area code to make a local call.
The number, known as 410-327-5254 after I inherited the house that went with it, is long dead in Baltimore. But it lives on — improbably, magically — in Los Angeles. Continued

Illustration: LoC