Otis Elevator Company Plaque. Looks bronze or brass and nonmagnetic. Found some fun reading about this famous company from the great Wikipedia at bottom!
Top plaque in first picture measures 10 1/4″ wide x 2 3/4″ tall, middle plaque in first picture is the Traction Ropes plaque measures 10 1/4″ x 1 1/2″ tall and the bottom plaque in first picture is least widest and measures 5 1/2″ wide x 2 1/8″ tall. Weight of all three together is 1/2 pound.
Have their scratches, scuffs, stains, bending, dings, nice Patina showing good age and still looks great! What makes these unusual is these supposedly came from a NYC Freight Elevator which could make them a set! Either way cool historic find.
Guessing made way before 1999. Cool Old Otis Elevator Company Sign or Plaques!!
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.
