Old Elevators.

[mikeelm]

Anyone know of any buildings that still have the old elevators that someone has to run the elevators themselves?

[M.K.]

Hotel Old Cataract in Aswan Egypt still have a very very old one from 1913 or likely, old british times.... I personally could have such very interesting experience. Some old ones in germany somewhere has them, but already electric converted.

[Cleveland Brown]

Originally Posted by mikeelm

Sorry I Accidnetly hit the CAPS button.


Anyone know of any buildings that still have the old elevators that someone has to run the elevators themselves?

I went to high school in a building that still an elevator operator and a working brass-gate (wood & glass doors), hand crank operated 1917 otis elevator. I graduated in 2001 not 1901.

Alas, for obvious reasons they "bricked in" all of the shafts during my junior year and ceased operation. That old fat lady still sat in her chair, pushing buttons on the new automatic elevator. BEST JOB EVER! The high school moved to a new $120,000,000+ building in 2005.

[Robert Pence]

In the late fifties the seven-story, 1917 downtown YMCA in Fort Wayne, Indiana was like a big college dorm. The resident population was made up mostly of out-of-town students at the various university extensions and business colleges, guys in town for North American Van Lines' driver training school, and transient military. It was a fun, rowdy kind of place to live, and it had the gym, pool, and a cafeteria that was inexpensive and first-rate for quality of food. I lived there for about a year and a half during my machinist-toolmaker apprenticeship at General Electric. The Y had a barber shop, a laundry/dry-cleaning drop-off, a comfortable TV lounge, and movies on weekend nights, and it was right downtown when there were still 5 movie theatres and all kinds of shopping and food-and-drink establishments nearby. A full-time maintenance staff kept the place clean and spiffy.

The building still had its original elevator, with brass gate, hand-crank controller and electro-mechanical call-button panel. I paid my $11 weekly room rent (about 8x10, twin bed, chest of drawers, chair & table, small closet, community shower & bathroom down the hall) by operating the elevator on weeknights. Traffic was sparse most of the time on my shift, and I could perch on my stool with my books and study. It was a fun job for then, because I got to know just about everybody who lived in the building.

On evening just before I went on duty, the elevator's counterweight stuck on the way up, and on the way down the elevator went into free fall between the sixth and second floor. The operator and a couple of passengers got bruises and bloody noses, but there were no serious injuries and no permanent damage to the machinery. The elevator was out of service for a couple of days while they repaired and inspected it, and then it was business as usual.

[MolsonExport]

There are still old fashioned elevators, complete with lift attendants, in the Kingsmill dept. store in downtown London (Ontario).

[harryc]

Chicago Field Museum, the freight elevator.

[Tom Servo]

i know a lot of hyde park apartments have old cage elevators still used. some have operators still, but i think most are user operated. but old cage elevators nonetheless.
a few of the old chicago school buildings in the printers row district and some in the loop still have old cage elevators.
i know of some north side buildings too... the eddystone, sheridan-grace apartments... i'm sure there are lots more... my building has the original elevator from the 20's...


but the ULTIMATE in awesome old elevators... the brewster apartments at pine grove and diversey! original iron cage elevator with an operator. it's amazing.

[DowntownCharlieBrown]

The Hotel del Coronado in San Diego still has their old elevator operating.


Photo credit: localwally.com


Photo credit: localwally.com

[Tom Servo]

here is the cage elevator in my building. btw, it was neat at first... but it's a real pain in the ass after about a week, and i've lived here over a year.

[mhays]

The Smith Tower in Seattle, which was the tallest building in the Western US from 1914 to the mid-1950s, still has elevator attendants.

Thankfully the system was updated a few years ago. Before that, on some of the upper floors, if you wanted to call the elevator you had to wait for it to go by and shout at the guy.

[mikeelm]

Originally Posted by AdrianXSands

here is the cage elevator in my building. btw, it was neat at first... but it's a real pain in the ass after about a week, and i've lived here over a year.

What exactly are the problems with the elevators?


I maybe asking an obvious question and I kind of figure that these older elevators will have its problems.

Hope they replace them so they don't one day come crashing down.

[mikeelm]

I don't know if anyone here in the Chicago area have watched Geoffery Baer's new show on channel 11 Hidden Chicago but it mentioned that the Fine Arts Building is the last one with elevator operatorsin in the city.

Of course re-reading this thread and the mention of the building on Pine Grove and Deversey looks like they were mistaken.

[Markitect]

The Wisconsin Builder magazine recently published an article about Milwaukee's Century Building and its old-fashioned elevator system and operator: Rising to the occasion - Century Building’s old elevators run a well-worn path

[Tom Servo]

Originally Posted by mikeelm

I don't know if anyone here in the Chicago area have watched Geoffery Baer's new show on channel 11 Hidden Chicago but it mentioned that the Fine Arts Building is the last one with elevator operatorsin in the city.

Of course re-reading this thread and the mention of the building on Pine Grove and Deversey looks like they were mistaken.

there are more than a few in the city with operators, channel are indeed wrong.

[M.K.]

Originally Posted by Markitect

The Wisconsin Builder magazine recently published an article about Milwaukee's Century Building and its old-fashioned elevator system and operator: Rising to the occasion - Century Building’s old elevators run a well-worn path

OMG Imagine if Burj Dubai elevators will be like that, with all those electrical mechanical relays.... it would be unbelivible & unmanagible. For God sakes there are the electronic boards today to simplify...

[MolsonExport]

I had a cage elevator in the building that I lived in while a PhD student in Montreal.

[Lecom]

Actually, 7 WTC in New York has a service elevator with a regular manual operator in it. He's a grumpy and old but cool dude who is not afraid to tell you to fuck off if he has to.

[Lecom]

Originally Posted by MKmillenium

OMG Imagine if Burj Dubai elevators will be like that, with all those electrical mechanical relays.... it would be unbelivible & unmanagible. For God sakes there are the electronic boards today to simplify...

Those would take forever to get to the top.

If anything, smaller boutique hotels need to reintroduce those. Luxury seekers will pay big bucks to have such an amenity.

[M.K.]

I have to agree. Unfortunatly I do not have those Bucks, and sure they will want all open door grilles and other details in gold...