Horace H. Raymond (1897-1954) married Grace Lillian Lattin in 1924. Soon thereafter (about 1825) she built a Bungalow style house at 198 Hundson Street in Berlin. Horace Raymond worked as an engineer for The Stanley Works and additions made to the rear of the house contained his own shop. In the early 1930s he took on a personal project: developing a pneumatic operator for an automatic door triggered by an optic device. He patented his invention in 1934. The first commercial installation of his “magic eye doors” was at Wilcox Pier Restaurant, at Savin Rock in West Haven. Another set of his automatic doors can still be found at the main entrance of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the late 1930s he established his own company, Raymond Engineering, which was based in Middletown.
Another place the “magic door” was tested was Penn Station. Imagine the commuters’ surprise when the door before them opened automatically!
This is a Sears Argyle kit home. I have the testimony for this home which was published in the 1920 Sears Home Comforts catalog.
Rachel Shoemaker
Oklahoma Houses By Mail
Here’s the history. This house was built by Edwin I Clark in 1920. Edwin passed away in 1923. Here is the 1920 testimony and photo.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ffshoe/38486478660/in/dateposted-public/
Rachel Shoemaker
Oklahoma Houses By Mail
My grandfather lived in this home for a long time, up until 2007 when he passed. I remembered being told it was a historic site, and I thought I remembered my mom telling me that it was a glue factory in the basement – there were weird, Dr Seuss-looking machines down there! I looked it up today on a whim – super cool to know the real history