Elevator Car Call Button, Antique Bronze Building Hardware Panel, cool car call button that looks great. Has 2 metal push buttons with etched in arrows for up and down. Attributing to Otis Elevator, button the fancy Otis Elevators egg dart border design.
This looks and feels heavy bronze but could be brass and nonmagnetic. Found some fun info on elevators from the great Wikipedia at bottom of page.
Button measures 10 1/2″ tall, 2 1/4″ wide and weight is close 2 1/4 pound, front plate is close to 1/2″ thick not counting buttons or back Hardware.
Has scratches, scuffs, tarnishing verdigris nicks and still looks great! Cool find! The solid, flat-back design indicates this was a custom surface-mount fixture for a high-end building, likely installed directly onto a luxury marble or stone pilaster. To maintain the flush look of the 1/2″ thick plate while preserving the expensive masonry, architects would core out small, precision clearance holes specifically for the protruding contact housings rather than cutting a large, standard junction box. This “minimalist boring” technique allowed the wiring to be threaded through the stone, ensuring the heavy 2.25-pound brass fixture looked like a seamless, permanent part of the building’s grand architecture.
This has the contact switches backside which is very cool. Noticed one button pushed in little easier than the other. Both seem to work, selling for restoration purposes but may work as is.
Guessing made 1920’s – 1930s. Cool Old Elevator Call Button!! Please check pictures for description and condition. Have the more call buttons listed separately.
The booming elevator market
In 1852 Elisha Otis invented the safety elevator, which automatically comes to a halt if the hoisting rope breaks. After a demonstration at the 1853 New York World’s Fair, the elevator industry established credibility.
Otis elevator in Glasgow, Scotland, imported from the U.S. in 1856 for Gardner’s Warehouse, the oldest cast-iron fronted building in the British Isles.
The Otis Elevator Company was founded in Yonkers, New York, in 1853 by Elisha Otis. When Elisha died in 1861, his sons Charles and Norton formed a partnership and continued the business. During the American Civil War, their elevators were in high demand due to the shipment of war materials. Businesses throughout the United States purchased them. In 1864, with the partnership of J.M. Alvord, the company became known as Otis Brothers & Co. In 1867, Otis opened a factory in Yonkers, New York, the city where the company was founded.
In 1925, the world’s first fully automatic elevator, Collective Control, was introduced. In 1931, the company installed the world’s first double-deck elevator in New York City.
Otis opened a factory in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1965.
Fayette S. Dunn became president of the company in 1964, succeeding the late Percy Douglas.
