The plain green telephone President Dwight D. Eisenhower used at his summer residence in Rhode Island has sold at auction.
The Newport Daily News reports that the phone with no numbers or dial was sold earlier this month by Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers of Cranston for $1,375.
The telephone was Eisenhower’s personal telephone at the “Summer White House” in Newport. The stately waterfront mansion built in 1873, sometimes known as the Commandant’s Residence or Quarters Number One, is more commonly known as the Eisenhower House. It is now owned by the state.
Another sale of significance was an original model of Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson’s first telephone from 1881, which went for $40,000. The original patent paperwork and a handwritten tag with Watson’s name were included.