“House of Charm”

Title

“House of Charm”

Description

In 1931, Greer CPW moved their offices into the first floor of 111 Trade Street. On second floor they set up the House of Charm, displaying the latest kitchen appliances. A home economist also provided cooking and sewing classes."Appliance shows" drew high attention in 1930. While appliances today are menial equipment in every home, at that time they were the latest inventions and only found in the finest houses.In this photo we see the House of Charm, likely taken immediately after being set up. Featured to the right are two electric Hotpoint stoves, c. 1930, including one on Queen Anne-style legs (by the end of the 1930s, both stoves and refrigerators had lost their legs and sat squarely on the floor). In the back are General Electric Monitor Top refrigerators. The round part on top is the condenser unit, and was said to be designed after the gun turret of the Civil War steam-powered ironclad ship, the USS Monitor. Monitor Top refrigerators were one of GE's top-selling products of the decade. They were small, so they couldn't hold much, and they were quite noisy, with a motor running in the top unit. Even so, they sold for $215 at a time when $1 a day was a good wage; in today's dollars, that refrigerator sold for $3,300.

Date

1931