Lookie what’s new at my house: A “Medallion Home – Live Better Electrically” doorbell! The bell even stays lighted! Dear Husband LOVES it!
After 65 years, the plastic push-button on our original doorbell kinda caved in and disintegrated. When DH went to look at the issue, I remembered I had bought this NOS doorbell a whiiiiiiile ago. I kernoodled a bit re: where had I stashed it. And in about three tries, I found it. It hooked right up to the existing doorbell wires, easy peasy.
Seriously. My husband LOVES it.
He gazes lovingly every time we drive up to the house in the dark.
He wanted to make sure I. Did. Not. Throw. Out. The. Box.
As if.
The Medallion Home Live Better Electrically campaign was A Thing, back in the day. But I am so busy working on my speech for Las Vegas that I have not a minute to go find links that explain it. Can you help, dear readers? If you find any good stories, can you post the links in a comment?
Anyone else have memorabilia of this campaign? Or — something original on your house from it?
Ding dong!
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Our house doesn’t have the medallion on the doorbell, but it is cemented into the concrete on our front porch! It’s been worn down from wear, and the previous homeowner painted over it, but you can still make out most of it.
I’d actually spent the last several years wondering what it was, because the words are no longer legible. My husband and I had just assumed it was some sort of union stamp, but this is much cooler!
My parents custom built a house in Raleigh, NC in 1961. It was a “gold medallion” house. I remember the plaque on the house. The walls had radiant electric heating Everything in the house was electric. They built it for $13k. It just sold recently for about $500k.
Woah! That is quite the rate of return, I think!
Yes, that would be like paying $103,000 today, so the house appreciated quite a bit more than inflation
I have that same medallion embedded in the concrete at the entrance to my home!
That packaging!
As a promotion home builders were encouraged to include electrically powered appliances and systems in homes and were awarded Bronze, Silver and Gold level depending on how complete the electrification was. Electricity was on its way to being so cheap, it would not even be metered at the home, just a flat access fee and use all you want!
It’s funny you should bring up metering. When we moved into our 1951 house, we upgraded our electric panel. The technician showed us where we could tap directly into the grid, still, without ever having to pay anything! We didn’t, of course, but it was sort of *amusing* to know we could have!
Perhaps your area was near where a nuclear power plant would be located. Back in 1954, the head of the Atomic Energy Commission made the remark that with nuclear power in the future, electricity would be “too cheap to meter”. What he actually meant is that people might pay a flat rate, but some reporter took that to mean that electric power would be free. Now people who are anti nuclear use that remark against the industry, because power from nuclear sources is actually more expensive, so much so that some NPPs have shut down for being uneconomical. I remember my folks bought an “All Gas House of Savings”, but it did not have a medallion. I wonder if a medallion for that was ever made?
Our New-To-Us house (built in ’58/’59) is a Medallion home. We bought it from the estate of the original owner who was also the widow of the builder (who also built many of the homes in the area). She kept every brochure for every electronic device in the house. The basement also has heated floors. Sadly, the medallion itself was taken or fell off years ago. We just have the house numbers with the Full Housepower lettering 🙂
What is Full Housepower lettering, Trixi?
We have a “Full Housepower” address tile holder, is that what you have MissTrixi? It is a metal frame that holds the old ceramic tile house number tiles and then there’s a small overhang with lights in it and underneath the overhang it says “Full Housepower” on a decal. Ironically, ours has not worked since we moved in.
That is what I’m guessing she’s talking about. I have one on my house too. Mine recently stopped working. I’m going to rewire it soon.
Now, I’m convinced you did this only to make me feel bad. Our 1964 all-brink rancher in Aurora CO was a GE Gold Medallion Home, and what a home it was/is. Next to the front door was a plaque similar to the one on the doorbell pictured, only larger. I took that off, but thought I “saved” it somewhere. Of course, it was never found, and I am just sick over it. The all-electric features were great until the Arab oil embargo of the late ’70s, when the cost of electricity skyrocketed due to demand. (In Colorado, there was a moratorium on gas taps.) Seemingly over-night, it became prohibitively expensive to heat the place, but it did have the advantage of having each room controlled by indidual thermostats, even the bathrooms! So, we ended up closing off some rooms and turning off the registers. also, they were noisy. They popped when expanding or contracting. We got used to that.
Oh you will find it! Also, watch ebay, they come up, I think….
When I was in elementary school in the 1950s the local Edison Co would have classes (for girls only, of course) to teach us how to cook on electric ranges. It was part of the all-electric house movement. They had a whole set of kitchens set up like a home ec room. We loved it because we always made sweets and we got to eat what we cooked. But now I swear by my vintage GAS O’Keefe & Merritt. I guess the electric stove cooking classes didn’t stick. . . .
I bet you anything we either had one of these on the house I lived in when I was little, or else my grandparents had one. It looks so incredibly familiar to me! Kind of like when you smell something and it reminds you of your childhood…I look at this and I remember being about 6 years old. Very cool. I am a bit jealous!
Here’s Ronald and Nancy Reagan in their all electric Medallion home!
https://youtu.be/u5Lz1C53RwI
I just love that Regan commercial – thanks for posting!
He hasn’t updated the blog in quite awhile, but there is a guy in St. Louis who has a whole house that was built as a Medallion home. If you pick through his older posts you can see some highlights.
http://www.livebetterelectrically.org
My grandparent’s home they bought new in 1962–and just recently resold to the fourth owners–is a Medallion home. Their medallion is embedded in the pebble path leading to the front porch. I used to be fixated by it as a kid. The house is a block away from our current home in a cove where I’m almost certain every home is a Medallion Home!
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/894-Park-Valley-Rd_Memphis_TN_38119_M87571-01422
These are all over the sixties/seventies era homes in Orange County! My childhood home, built in 1972, originally had one of these. (in fact, this doorbell looks exactly like my old one!) I have the brochure to that neighborhood explaining that Medallion homes are basically all-electric, which was a craze at that time.
Our neighbor when I was growing up was an electrical engineer and joined the fad by converting their 5 year old house to “totally electric” in the late 1960s. He replaced their hot water heater, furnace, kitchen cooktop and oven, and clothes dryer from natural gas to electric as well as the the doorbell button with one identical to this. The only reason I remember the doorbell was that we played with his kids all the time and rang their doorbell constantly. I think the slogan for doing so was “Clean Living.” As an aside, my dad, a structural engineer, thought converting a house to all electric was dumb. Go figure.
I can’t figure out how to post a picture, but I have the brass door knocker from this campaign! How cool to hear of other items!
Clinton, you can email me via our Contact box, then I can give you the email to send a pic. Thanks! https://retrorenovation.com/contact/
I have a Trine door bell unit and I need a copy of the instructions, if you have instructions could I please get a copy from you?
I don’t think I have any…
I recently purchased (from an Antique store) a solid brass front door knocker with the the Gold Medallion Home Total Electric Award on it. It is in pristine condition, has been in a box and never been used. I was interested in the value. Thank you, Jon Estes from Gloucester VA
Jon, we don’t do valuations…
This is exactly what I’m looking for. Any clue where I can buy one?
You gotta watch for vintage — ebay is likely your best bet. That’s where I found mine.
In Canada (or at least here in Québec), we had the same doorbells in French.
https://flic.kr/p/X4Hkgg