pay phone story

Payphone Story – Global History of Payphones and Phone Booths

US SHERRON ACOUSTIC Booth

Sherron Acoustic “See-Thru” booths, made by Sherron Metallic Corporation in Brooklyn, New York (1940s–50s), were modular steel and glass enclosures with sound-absorbing interiors and ventilation. Likely designed in-house, they were widely deployed in offices, transport hubs, and streets, bridging heavy kiosks and later transparent modernist booths.

Name	SHERRON ACOUSTIC Booth
Date	c. 1950-1980
Manufacturer	Sherron

Information on the Sherron “Acoustic See-Thru” booth

Sherron acoustic telephone booths were produced by the Sherron Metallic Corporation, headquartered at 1201 Flushing Avenue, Brooklyn, New York, from the mid-1940s through the 1950s. Their products formed part of a broader American move toward all-metal, modular, and acoustically treated enclosures for public telephony in dense urban environments.

The “Acoustic See-Thru” line combined steel or stainless-steel framing with extensive glazing, creating a transparent enclosure while maintaining sound attenuation through insulated panels and tight construction. Catalogues emphasised sound-absorbing interiors, electric ventilation, and equal-leaf folding doors, reflecting post-war concerns with hygiene, durability, and user comfort. These booths were engineered rather than architect-designed in the traditional sense; no single named designer is typically credited, suggesting an in-house industrial design approach aligned with American manufacturing practice of the period.

Deployment was widespread across the United States, particularly in transport hubs, department stores, office lobbies, and street installations, often supplied through Bell System distributors and independent equipment companies. Their modularity allowed single units or grouped installations, making them adaptable to both indoor and outdoor contexts.

Sherron booths represent a transitional typology: moving from enclosed, opaque kiosks toward the lightweight, glass-dominant modernist booths that would define late-20th-century public telephony.