ElectraChime Doorbells from Coast to Coast
An Empire Seashell with three brass bells graces a niche in San Francisco's Richmond District. Meanwhile, an unfinished Coronet with two nickel-plated brass bells does sentry duty in this stunning New York City entry. The owner, a talented do-it-yourselfer, plans to finish the chime to coordinate with the existing decor. We can't wait to see his personal touch!
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ElectraChime Love Note. And We're a Fan of this Metro Installation!
Dear Robert,
Thank you so much for our beautiful door chime! We absolutely love the way it looks in our living room niche (waaaaay better than how it looked when we moved in a few weeks ago, no?) and we also love the way it sounds! And thanks, too, for all the phone help you gave my husband when he called with questions. Our family couldn't be happier with our Electrachime doorbell. Thanks again,
Mandy & Aaron F.
Santa Rosa, CA
If your home suffers this malady, ElectraChime has a cure.
Before and After photos courtesy of K. Fitzgerald
Let's Talk Turkey about a Unique Doorbell
Right Around the time Sophie Cubbison invented packaged poultry stuffing in the early 1930's, Joseph Klein patented a long chime doorbell with a concealed mechanism that he marketed under the Velvatone name.
With success from popularizing her stuffing, Mrs. Cubbison built a spectacular Spanish Revival home in Los Angeles' Mt. Washington neighborhood.
Mrs. Cubbison helped design the two-story house, dubbed "Casa de Mi Sueño," or "My Dream House." It is considered "much more convincing than most of the 19th-century adobes," according to David Gebhard and Robert Winter's "An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles."
The home features oak doors, custom iron work and stone floors. And it has a unique chime niche that measures an unusually narrow five inches wide and 50 inches tall.
Even after a meticulous restoration, the doorbell niche remained empty until the current owner contacted ElectraChime. With some internet sleuthing, the owner had determined the original chime was likely one of Mr. Klein's Velvatone doorbells as the missing mechanism appeared to have been recessed at the top of the niche. Another clue being that Velvatone had a sales office in Los Angeles.
Alas, Velvatone was an also ran in doorbells. Today, as Mrs Cubbison might have quipped, Velvatone doorbells are about as common as hen's teeth.
With a surviving Velvatone catalog from the ElectraChime collection for reference, we determined the original chime was almost certainly a single bell model. Armed with this information and an original patent drawing, ElectraChime built a highly credible reproduction to do the niche proud.
Once more, the Cubbison house has all the trimmings.
If you are looking for a special custom doorbell for your own home contact us.
Best to Check with the Boss First
Photo courtesy of R. Ogden
When Rusty Ogden first contacted ElectraChime with a few questions, he wasn't quite sure which ElectraChime would work best in their Texas home. Rusty wisely deferred to "The Boss" who selected a Coronet with three brass bells.
She made the right choice, don't you think?
See and Hear: Doorbell Demonstrators.
Remember visiting the hardware department with your father and then wondering off to play with the doorbell display? Oh how we must have drove those store clerks to distraction by pushing all the buttons!
Door Chimes are meant to be heard and seen, so naturally customers needed to know what they sounded like and working displays were common.
Door chime displays range from simple counter-top mechanical demonstrators to wall dominating extravaganzas like these 1930s Rittenhouse demonstrators.
Today, through the magic of the internet, you can hear just how delightful ElectraChime long tubular bells sound. Of course, the online experience is only as good as the speakers on your phone, tablet or computer. We believe ElectraChimes sound best in person.
So go ahead, press play to hear our doorbells. Better still, click on any of photos in our catalog and see for yourself how great ElectraChimes look, and sound.
Doorbells and Glamour. Avon Calling.
One of the most successful advertising campaigns ever involved doorbells. Anybody that watched TV or picked up a magazine during the 1950's and 1960's will remember images of the cheerful Avon Lady and her signature ringing of the doorbell.
Avon even furnished representatives with novelty mechanical doorbells they could use during sales calls. These sales aides were cleverly adapted door mounted doorbells.
The ubiquitous television commercials featured a melodious "ding-dong" with a long resonance that could only have been produced by long tubular bells.
