Washington Missouri - Vintage Water-Powered Elevator From Otto Furniture Listed on eBay

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Vintage Water-Powered Elevator From Otto Furniture Listed on eBay

By Melissa Miller, Missourian Staff Writer

02/22/2006

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An antique elevator in Downtown Washington's historic Otto Furniture building is up for grabs on eBay. The asking price is just $100 to anyone who is willing to remove the elevator by March 15.

The water-powered elevator has been continuously used to move furniture between the basement and the building's three floors since 1898, according to the listing, found at www.eBay.com.

It was first put up for online auction Feb. 19 and will bidding will continue through Sunday, Feb. 26.

"It's a great piece of history," said Washington Historical Society Museum Director Marc Houseman. "It was one of the first elevators in Washington designed to transport people from place to place."

Otto Furniture, one of Washington's oldest businesses, is closing its doors after 145 years. The building was sold to Interfood, Inc., based in Union.

The company, which sells dairy products, will relocate its offices to the second floor and plans to renovate the third floor into apartments, according to General Manager Larry Rice. The first floor will be rented for retail space, once the furniture store completes its liquidation sale and moves out, he said.

As elevator codes are written today, the historic water-powered elevator isn't approved for public use in a commercial building, Rice said.

"I wanted to leave the elevator in the building, but it had to go because it didn't meet current fire codes, which were written for electric elevators," Rice said.

During the renovation process, a new electric elevator must be installed.

"The alternative is to throw it in a garbage dump, so in desperation I put it on eBay to see if somebody out there might be looking for it," Rice said.

Before listing it on eBay he contacted several elevator companies and museums, but no one was interested in it. Rice noted that the elevator could be used in a historic home.

"If it were left in the building, it makes it more interesting, historically," noted Houseman. "Once it's moved from its original building it loses some of its value."

The wood elevator box is 5 feet wide by 4 feet deep and is raised and lowered by a cable looped over a pulley at the top of the shaft and attached to a horizontal piston in the basement. The piston moves in and out by normal water pressure, according to the eBay listing. When fully extended the piston mechanism is 24 feet long by 3-feet wide by 3-feet high.

©Washington Missouri 2010

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