How Red British Phone Booths Ended Up on the SouthCoast

Phone booths in London have a very distinct look. They are painted bright red, and since the smart phone revolution, they have become more of a cool photo op for a tourist than an actual utility.

If you've ever driven by Brandon Woods on Dartmouth Street in Dartmouth, you may have noticed an interesting sight. For some reason, there is an authentic British phone booth sitting right out in front of the senior living community. You'll find a similar booth at the Brandon Woods in New Bedford.

Frank Romano, who has owned Brandon Woods for decades, says that he opened an office about 30 years ago at the University of Surrey in England. At the time, Romano had an interest in developing senior housing in England. While he was there, he fell in love with the coolness of the phone booths. He noticed that they were starting to remove the bright red booths because more and more people were gravitating to cell phone use.

Get our free mobile app

A friend of his managed to track down one of the booths that was getting ready to be discarded. The only cost would be the cost of shipping the booth back to the United States in a container. Apparently, the cost would be the same if the container was full, so he filled the container with six of the English phone booths.

The booths were refurbished and placed in front of Romano's senior living facilities as a trademark. Locally, they still stand proudly in front of both the Brandon Woods in Dartmouth, the Brandon Woods location in New Bedford, and at other sister facilities across Massachusetts.