MISSIONARY INDEPENDENT SPIRITUAL CHURCH

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MISSIONARY INDEPENDENT
SPIRITUAL CHURCH
AND THE BRITISH AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION'S
HISTORIC ROADSIDE EMERGENCY TELEPHONE BOXES



During the early and mid 20th century, the British Automobile Association built more than 1,000 private emergency roadside telephone booths for the use of its members. The remaining structures are now preserved as examples of historic architecture. The Burgess Bus Stop, originally located on Laughlin Road near Forestville, in Sonoma County, California, USA, is strikingly similar in design to these AA Telephone Booths -- and resembles no other building i have ever seen in the United States. Don Burgess -- who created the private bus stop in the early 1960s, as a place for his daughter to wait for the school bus to pick her up -- was a commercial artist and a skilled hobby carpenter. Did he get the idea for his unusual cross-gable structure from having seen Automobile Association roadside booths in England? We do not know -- but here, for the sake of comparison, are some photographs.





Each British Automobile Association Roadside Emergency Telephone Booth was numbered, so that stranded motorists could tell the AA were they were located. Box designs and proportions varied a bit over the years, but all featured cross-gable roofs, vertical trim boards, and a prominent fascia. Here are Box 137 and Box 442, and next to them, for comparison, the Burgess Bus Stop, its southwest roof corner heaviy damagd after a Eucalyptus tree was accidentally felled on it.





Here is another view of Automobile Association Box 442, with the Burgess Bus Stop shown from approximately the same angle. One visible difference between the two is the deeper overhang of the Burgess Bus Stop roof, a feature that derives from the local Victorian Vernacular farmhouse roof style popular in rural Northern California.





Here we see Automobile Association Roadside Emergency Telephone Box 321, the Burgess Bus Stop, and a model train layout replica of Automobile Association Box 308, showing the complexly folded look of the cross-gable roof. These photos also point out another difference between the British phone booths and the American private bus stop: the British buildings feature a small vent-cap at the roof apex, while the bus stop is unvented and open to the elements.

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