The crossarm on the pole in the foreground carried several twisted-wire subscriber circuits. Small crossarms like this one were rather commonplace at least around Boston for making multiple subscriber drops to New England Telephone and Telegraph Co. customers. Typically 20-inch braces were used with these arms along with porcelain spools (having two or more grooves) mounted on steel L-brackets. The crossarms, insulators, etc., were kept in place in later years when improved subscriber service wire came about. A number of these old crossarms still were up in the air in the Boston area through the 1990s. These were on some pretty old poles..

Quincy is a Boston suburb, neighboring the city to the south.