Old "Axtel" Telephone Exchanges

From about the 1930's through the 1960's, each telephone number in the U.S. was part of a named exchange. The first 2 letters of the name indicated the first 2 numbers of the phone number. Usually the name of the exchange was not the town but a word from an officially recommended list from American Telephone and Telegraph Corp. (29 could also be Axminster or Cypress.)

AXtel was used in at least 8 areas:
Tucson, AZ; Northern Kentucky; Tuckerton, NJ; Penns Grove, NJ; Albuquerque, NM; Queens, NY; Worthington, PA; Dallas, TX.

The above information is from the Telephone Exchange Name Project. It's a fun site, but there's no explanation of how these exchanges got our misspelled name. I note that Axtel, KY is spelled with one "L". It is in northwest KY. If anyone else has theories, please let me know.

back to Places Named Axtell
[AFO Home] [The Name] [Genealogy] [Places] [Notables] [Businesses] [Album]


Last revised on 9-2-97 by Dan Axtell