I don’t know if there is a continuous loop of elevator music playing at the Elevator Historical Society’s museum, but there should be. With a view of Manhattan, an island full of skyscrapers that could not exist without the invention of up-and-down travel, the museum in Long Island City (supposedly the heart of the lift industry, I bet you didn’t know that) has a random collection to rival all other random collections. In a room that resembles an elevator there are ID plaques, car ceilings and button plates, various industrial tools, thousands of operator manuals, obscure mechanical parts and random pop culture items. It all comes from a lifetime of hoarding, quite literally. Founder and curator Pat Carrajat, who opened the museum two years ago, started collecting elevator paraphernalia in 1955 when he was just 11 years old. He ended up working in elevator maintenance and repair. Anyway, visitors can see the earliest elevator push button from 1895 along with an early elevator hand brake from 1890, plus a very random autographed photo of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in an elevator (of course!). The museum is located in the same spot where New York City Elevator Number 1 was recorded. Carrajat’s dream is to move to a larger location in the next year or two, ideally a two-story building with high ceilings, so he can offer rides on an antique elevator. Right now the museum is open by appointment only, and ironically can only be reached by climbing a flight of stairs. But if you mention that you can’t walk or something, Carrajat will gladly share the location of the building’s secret elevator.
Elevator Historical Society’s museum, New York, Long Island City
