DC’s abandoned fire and police call boxes, explained

You’ve probably walked by them on street corners in Washington, DC: old cast-iron fixtures that definitely used to be something. Most are hollowed, while some have art installations or representations of local history inside. But what are they? And why are they all over the city?

Coleman Lowndes

These relics were actually crucial for urban communication before the days of the telephone. They’re fire and police call boxes, and they were installed in DC in the late 1800s.

Ghosts of DC

The fire boxes, which came first, relied on a telegraph system. If you saw a fire, you would run down to the box and turn the key inside. It would send a message through underground cables to the central alarm center. The transmission matched a location on a giant map, telling the fire department where to send help.

The police boxes were used a little differently. They had telephones connected directly to the police department. The boxes were used by officers on patrol to check in from different street corners at different times to update central command, call for backup, or receive updated orders for their patrol area.

Coleman Lowndes

Over time, with the telephone becoming a common household technology and the invention of the 911 system in the 1970s, the boxes, which had cropped up across the country, slowly became obsolete. In DC, they were entirely abandoned as the city deemed the upkeep too expensive.

But in 2000, they found purpose again. A nonprofit organization called Cultural Tourism DC initiated "Art on Call" to restore the call boxes. The program encouraged local artists to turn them into neighborhood icons. So now these boxes serve the same street corners that they did more than 100 years ago.

See the video above to learn more about fire and police call boxes.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.

So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)

If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via