Reporting from suburbia
This sounds like the setup for an episode of a dry single-camera sitcom: a public radio reporter from New York City travels to Clifton Park to tour "the place with the greatest income equality in the nation" (Country Knolls). [WNYC via Good] Earlier: A neighborhood where (economically) everyone's just about the same | The ___est neighborhoods in the Capital Region
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Comments
Van Patten light switch photo, please.
... said Paul on Sep 19, 2012 at 3:56 PM | link
http://retrorenovation.com/2009/07/17/gretchens-1961-ge-solenoid-system-lighting/
Our home was in Country Knolls South, one of Van Patten's later creations.
There were two of the "Master Control" things, one in the kitchen, and one in the master bedroom.
The switches that were throughout the house were the upper style in the second photo. But our wall plates weren't that nice... they where almond with a brass... skin? in the middle. I'm sure it looked great in the 70s.
Only "important" lights had these switches... kitchen, outside, major living areas. Other rooms had your "normal" light switch.
In the basement was something similar to this monstrosity: http://www.flickr.com/photos/atomicpear/3726449191/in/set-72157621516784206/ (from the photostream linked from the blog post above). (in the version installed in our house it was self contained in a sub-panel off the main panel for the house, it didn't look like a telephone box). All the signal wires from all of the switches and the master panels routed here, and toggled relays for each of the light circuits. Like the comment in the post said, if you lost a relay, you couldn't change the state of the light.
... said Mark on Sep 21, 2012 at 11:36 PM | link