Philadelphia suburban telephone exchanges after July 5, 1946

This section is organized in the same way as is each geographical section of this site: by exchange. There are three tables, which can be described as alphabetical, numeric, and alphabetical/numeric:

• In the alphabetical table, the exchanges are strictly ordered by the alphabetical sequence of their exchange names. For example, ELgin precedes ELmwood, even though they may be dialed as ELgin 6 (356) and ELmwood 5 (355).
• In the numeric table, the exchanges are strictly ordered by the numeric sequence of the digits, so 355 (ELmwood 5) precedes 356 (ELgin 6), not to mention that 644 (NIagara 4) precedes 646 (MItchell 6).
• In the alphabetical/numeric table, the exchanges are strictly ordered by the sequence of two letters and one digit associated with the exchange, so that EL 5 precedes EL 6, but MI 6 precedes NI 4.

Unlike many other cities, in Philadelphia and the rest of the 215 area, even after the start of All-Number Calling many exchanges were assigned to the same area that had others beginning with the same two digits, so that they could be thought of (and apparently were thought of) as within the same exchange name as existing exchanges with the same first two digits. These "unofficial" names are given here, with a note to indicate that they were not official. (In fact, some of these names may have been official; this is not totally certain.)