Intriguing Millionaire Realty’s Telephone Oddity

I took this photo the other day:

I admired the sign’s retro look and the business’s unusual name (if it was established in 2014 it would probably be called “Billionaire Realty”). I was curious to learn more about it, and what I discovered was not much in the way of details about the business per se, but that it was a popular subject among local bloggers. I found instances of it on Queens Love, Forgotten New York, Sorabji, Ephemeral New York, and Satan’s Laundromat.

What’s more interesting, though, is the display of the phone number on the sign: AS4 5500, which translates to 274-5500. The “AS” stands for Astoria, one of the old telephone exchanges. Sorabji actually spent time photographing instances of the visible old telephone exchanges around NYC, which can be seen here. There are a few other instances in Astoria/LIC, though one is gone, the Astoria Finast Windows on Broadway, which is currently on a construction site (this was the location of the infamous “USA, love it or leave it” sign).

Millionaire Realty can be found at 23-29 Astoria Blvd.

One Comment

christophe May 7th, 2014

I just walked past that, and thought it should be called hundredaire realty from the look of the signage.

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