#TBT: Former Westborough Sgt. Poses With Knocked Down Call Box

WESTBOROUGH, MA—In this photo, former Chief Glenn Parker poses with a Gamewell Police Call Box. In the photo, Parker was at the time a sergeant on the Westborough Police Department.

Parker was with Westborough police starting in 1970 as a sergeant, then rose in ranks to lieutenant and chief from 1992 to 2002. He continued working traffic details until 2012.

"I had a laugh there," Parker told Patch about spotting the photo on FB. "The photo was taken about 1975."

Parker explains the significance of the photo on the Westborough PD's Facebook page:

This Gamewell Police Call Box was located in the Rotary from 1938 until 1972 when it was knocked down by a car and thrown into the metal scrape dump that was located at the highway shed on South Street. An electrified cobalt blue glass ball sat on a pole five feet above the box to avoid being stolen.

The call box was equipped with a telephone that was wired directly to Harper’s Funeral Home on West Main Street. Mr. Harper would take calls for the police and then activate the light to notify the officer in the square. The officer upon seeing the light illuminated would then call Mr. Harper for information about the call.

The call box communications system remained the sole means of notifying the officer in the square until 1952 when the Town acquired its first police vehicle and a radio system for the fire and police departments. The Blue Light was finally deactivated in 1969.

Want to submit a photo to be featured? Send it to charlene.arsenault@patch.com with the pertinent information (details of the photo, photographer, place and time).

Photo via Westborough police