VISITOR'S GUIDE - Carrabelle Area Chamber of Commerce

21
World’s Smallest
Police Station
In the early 1960s, Carrabelle’s police phone was located
in a call box that was bolted to a building at the corner of
Hwy. 98 and Tallahassee Street. During this time, the city
had problems with tourists making unauthorized long
distance calls on its police phone. Johnnie Mirabella,
the only St. Joe Telephone Co. employee in Carrabelle
at the time, moved the phone to another location,
but the illegal calls continued. So, when the phone
company made the decision to replace an old phone
booth with a new one, Mirabella decided to put the
policephone in the old booth.
On March 10, 1963 Mirabella, with the help of Curly
Messer, deputy sheriff at the time, moved the phone
booth to its current location on Hwy 98. There were a
couple of reasons for doing so - to protect police officers
from the elements, as well as curtail the illegal calls.
Unfortunately, the illegal phone calls continued to be
a problem and eventually the dial was removed from
the phone. Many hardships have been endured by the
retired St. Joe Company phone booth. Vandals have
ripped phones from the booth, shot holes through
its glass, it has been knocked over by a pickup truck
and knocked over and damaged by Hurricane Kate.
Adding insult to injury, a tourist once asked a gas
station attendant to help him load it into his vehicle
so he could take it back to Tennessee with him.
It has been featured on the television shows
“Real People”, “Ripley’s Believe It or Not’,
and the "Today Show”. It was also featured in the movie
“Tate’s Hell” produced at Florida State University.
We invite you to stop by and
take your picture in front of the
World’s Smallest Police Station