Heritage Community Foundation Presents
Alberta Online Encyclopedia

Stan Melton

By: John Gilpin

Ervie Jackson, born in the town of Strathmore, Alberta, in 1919, was a prominent real estate broker and influential member of the Calgary Real Estate Board, the Alberta Real Estate Association, and the Canadian Real Estate Association.

Melton Real Estate was one of the stars of the golden age because of the influence of Stan Melton, who was also a veteran and son of an Edmonton real estate salesman. The founder of the company was his father, Louis Timothy Melton, who was born in France and immigrated to Canada in 1887.

In 1918 Timothy moved to Edmonton, where he entered the real estate business. He was employed by Allan, Celom, McKay and Greene for the next four years, then started his own business. He opened the Stanley Investment Co., which was officially incorporated on March 10, 1925. After 1932 the name of the company was changed to L. T. Melton Realty. The company specialized in west-end proper¬ties, since Tim's motto was: “Buy land in the west end of a growing City, keep it and it will keep you”.

Stan Melton took over the company after he returned from the war. Under Stan's direction the company quickly expanded, opening branches throughout Edmonton and western Canada. He used existing personnel trained in Melton policy and ethics. Melton Real Estate was one of the first real estate companies in Edmonton to establish branch offices in residential districts. These offices were convenient for the customer and placed sales staff in the community where they could become familiar with the area and its residents. In 1955 the company expanded to Calgary. Its success was based on good customer and employee relations.

The company also coined one of the most familiar advertising slogans in Edmonton's history, “call a Melton man and start packing.”

The system of branch offices was an important part of Stan's concept of how sales staff acquired listings. In his view, a sales representative without listings was a merchant with nothing to sell. A listing was the purpose, reason, and justification for a merchant being in business. To obtain listings Stan Melton recommended finding those people with a reason to sell.

In 1968 Melton Real Estate became a public company when it was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Following Stan Melton's death from a heart attack at an Edmonton Eskimo football game in 1973, the decision was made to sell off the real estate brokerage part of the business to A. E. LePage of Toronto. The company then concentrated on land development, housing construction, and income properties development as Melcor Developments Ltd. Stan's son Tim was president.

Stan served as president of the Edmonton Real Estate Board (EREB) in 1954, as president of the Alberta Real Estate Association (AREA) in 1955, and as president of Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) in 1963. AREA and CREA each awarded him a Life Membership in recognition of his outstanding service to the industry.

This article is extracted from John Gilpin, Responsible Enterprise: A History of Edmonton Real Estate & the Edmonton Real Estate Board. (Edmonton: Edmonton Real Estate Board, 1997). The Heritage Community Foundation and the Alberta Real Estate Foundation would like to thank John Gilpin and the REALTORS® Association of Edmonton for permission to reproduce this material.

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