PEnnsylvania 6-5000

The number is best known from the 1940 hit song "Pennsylvania 6-5000", a swing jazz and pop standard recorded by the Glenn Miller Orchestra.

Its owner, the Hotel Pennsylvania, claims it to be the oldest continuously used telephone number in New York City.

[1] The hotel closed permanently in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and is being torn down to make way for a tower at 15 Penn Plaza.

The North American Numbering Plan introduced area codes for the eventually continent-wide implementation of direct distance dialing in 1951 in Englewood, New Jersey.

[9] Letters from the original named exchange prefixes are occasionally spotted on old signage in the city, but are increasingly rare.

[10] Many big band names played in the Hotel Pennsylvania's Café Rouge, including the Glenn Miller Orchestra.