My 1931 bungalow has a little shelf in the corner of the hallway for a telephone. Directly underneath is a small vented cabinet that used to hold the telephone workings. I've never done anything special to it and the jack for a phone had been removed before I moved in. A few years ago, I picked up a cute vintage reproduction phone and recently plopped it on the shelf, just for looks. When some friends came by for lunch a couple of weeks ago, one asked if the old phone actually worked and I had to say no. Giving it some thought, I picked up a double connector at Home Depot and headed down to the basement where I was able to connect it into the existing line and voila! I now have a working phone in the hallway again.
The oil paintings hanging above the phone shelf are of my parents, painted by my mother's cousin many years ago.