My parents recently moved into a ranch style house and on my first visit I noticed the above medallion hanging outside their garage. It seems my parents have moved into a Gold Medallion Home — now, what exactly does that mean?
The small round plaque hanging on the frame of my parents' garage door reads: Gold Medallion Home. Live Better Electrically. And, as you might guess, everything in this house is electric — from the baseboard heaters to the range. These homes started popping up in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Indeed, the house my parents recently bought was built in 1964. At that time, many homes ran on coal burning or gas furnaces so electric baseboard heat was seen as a novel new approach to heating a home. Based on a newspaper ad from the time that I came across, "It's more fun living in an all electric Gold Medallion Home. Electric heat ... the heating system of tomorrow is yours to enjoy today." The ad also boasts plenty of electric outlets "to hand your present and your future requirements. You have all the power you need to keep adding the latest time and labor saving tools and equipment as they are developed." Anyone who has ever lived in an older home knows how true this statement can be. The house where I spent my teen years was built in the 1920s and had only one electrical outlet in each room.
From today's standpoint, it may seem strange to boast that a home is all electric. Today we'd be more impressed if a home was powered by alternative energy. By 1960s standards, however, this was something to be truly excited about!
Image: Jason Loper
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I grew up in a home that is now over 200 years old and a lot of the time it felt like it! My hubby and I live in a 20's bungalow and love it! Fortunately he's well versed in electrical stuff so we have more than one outlet per room :-)
This was such a fun article to read! Very interesting!
These "Live Better Electrically" was a campaign with spoke person Ronal Regan in the 1960's. My parent's house in Downey California is a Mid Century home which won that same medallion. Their medallion is embedded onto the entrance concrete walkway.
We were fortunate to have one of the original owner's kid (now in her early '50s) stop by and she revealed to us that the house won the award for its outstanding "modern" light system. The entire house's lights are controlled locally as anyone would switch their lights on and off individually per room. In addition to that this house was fitted with two master control panels in the master bedroom and the den to control "all" the lights remotely. It's nice as they even control outlets intended for Christmas lights on the so-fit of the perimeter of the home.
The system is quite complex as it has lots of wiring and a panel of over a dozen of relays located in a panel in the garage. Pretty neat. One day I will post pictures of that system and tag this post.
For now please enjoy a retro commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5KEu5WvdnE
I also live in a Gold Medallion Home in a community of 150 homes built in 1967 in San Diego. The medallion is attached to the doorbell at the front door. The heating and dryer is now gas and a gas option is available for the range, but I'm not sure if this was added after.
In climates that the cooling cycle is predominant, electric air and heat are fine. Gas is preferable and more efficient in climates where the heating cycle is predominant.
Interesting! We live in a house that was built in 1915, and while we have more than one outlet in most rooms (not all), many of them aren't grounded. It made arranging furniture very difficult, having to figure out where to place TVs, computers, end tables with lamps, nightstands, etc. Not to mention, the house has a million doors and windows, making it all that much harder!
This is a really neat story. I love these little historical tidbits that got lost and then rediscovered. :)