How classic telephone booths found home near Fresno State. ‘A Fresno attraction’
Whether it’s pizza with pineapple, flip flops with a tuxedo or Kim Kardashian dating Pete Davidson, some things just don’t seem like they go together.
And yet, sometimes the combo works.
Like Kermit and Miss Piggy. Or maple bacon chocolate donuts.
Across the street from the Save Mart Center, there’s an odd combination that’s kind of stood the test of time.
Two telephone booths in the age of cell phones.
“Even the homeless have cellphones today,” Armen Dervishian said.
Dervishian and his brother, George, are the ones responsible for putting up the two red telephone booths in the shopping center at the corner of Shaw and Woodrow avenues.
As owners of the shopping center that’s anchored by a Starbucks and the Redwave Liquor store, the Dervishian brothers installed the red telephone booths that give a London and British vibes some 35 years ago simply as decoration.
Initially, there weren’t payphones.
Just outdoor decoration that the Dervishians believed would bring some color to the property, and draw people’s attention and curiosity.
What’s a British red telephone booth doing in the middle of Fresno?
Armen Dervishian also was drawn to the red telephone booth during his trip to England and remembered many tourists taking pictures in front of it.
The red telephone booths are considered British cultural icons and dates back to the 1920s.
It has no direct ties to Fresno.
But Dervishian remembers thinking: “Could be good for our business.”
Then soon after installation of the red telephone booths, another man who was in the business of making money off telephone calls back in the 1990s asked to team with the Dervishians to put in payphones.
This was before the cellphone boom, of course, when it seemed like only the ultra rich or Zack Morris from “Saved By the Bell” had those brick-thick mobile phones.
To use a payphone then, it’d cost only 25 cents to talk for the first few minutes.
Then the cost went up to 35 cents.
Nonetheless, those distinct red telephone booths near the Fresno State campus were operational for roughly 20 years and often used by those needing to make a quick phone call.
But as cellphones became more and more common, payphones essentially became obsolete.
Even if you didn’t have a cellphone by the mid-2000s, why pay for a call when you can borrow someone’s cell?
“So the vendor who put the phones in the booth, he wasn’t making money but I guess he didn’t want to deal with physically disconnecting it,” Dervishian said. “So there was a phone there, but it didn’t work .”
In time, the telephones inside the phone booth were vandalized.
“People would bang on the phone and slam it against the booth; maybe they were frustrated that it wasn’t working,” said Emmanuel Espinoza, who works security at the shopping complex. “Then one day, the cord was cut. And there was no more phone.”
But even without a phone inside, Dervishian did not want to get rid of the phone booths.
It still continued to serve its initial purpose of providing outside decor for the area and grabbing people’s attention.
Instead, he’s made sure to repaint the steel telephone booths every few years to keep it a vibrant red.
And in turn, these London red telephones have become a place that people come by to take pictures in front of.
“It’s kind of become a Fresno attraction,” said Deshawn Grimes, a Fresno resident who lives nearby and frequents the shopping center. “I see different people every week taking a photo by the booth.”
On one rainy day, Dervishian recalled being confused when he spotted a man inside the phone booth and on the phone.
“Did they install the payphones again?” Dervishian said he thought to himself.
Then he looked closer and realized the man was talking on his cellphone from inside the red telephone booth and using the spot to stay dry and out of the rain.
“I guess you can make calls still from inside the phone booth,” Dervishian said.
Just bring your own phone.
This story was originally published December 17, 2025 at 9:30 AM.