Until 1873 Syracuse was a ‘world of stairs’ before the introduction of the city’s first elevator

D. McCarthy & Co store. Circa 1885. This building was torn down in 1894 to make way for a massive new building. Designed by Charles Colton, who also designed Syracuse’s City Hall, the new building was completed that same year. Courtesy of the Onondaga Historical Association
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In Great Britain, they call them lifts. Here in America, we refer to these wonderful machines as elevators.

Like so much of our everyday technology, most of us take the ability to enter a box, press a button and be transported skyward for granted.

Now, 166 years after Elisha Otis installed the first steam powered elevator (equipped with his patented braking system that greatly increased the public’s trust in the machines) inside E.W. Haughtwhat & Company’s five-story New York City department store, the elevator has become so ubiquitous in the world of high-rise apartment complexes and skyscrapers it made possible, it is nearly impossible to imagine life without them.

But for Syracusans living and shopping before January 23, 1873, theirs was a world of stairs.

On that fateful day, the shoppers at D. McCarthy & Company, at the corner of Fayette and South Salina Streets, stepped into history as the city’s first steam-powered elevator was opened for public use.

Department stores like Haughtwhat’s and McCarthy’s were natural locations for the first elevators. Merchants were generally amongst the wealthiest citizens and the utility of moving merchandise and customers easily within their every-growing cathedrals of consumption made these rather expensive machines a sound investment.

A Houser Elevator Company ad from the city directory, 1890.  This is nearly identical to the machine at the restaurant Oh My Darling. Courtesy of the Onondaga Historical Association

In flourishing Syracuse, it was exceedingly appropriate that D. McCarthy & Co. became the home of this trailblazing technology.

Thomas McCarthy, an Irish immigrant from County Cork, was one of the pioneering men to settle the area long before the Erie Canal, setting up his fist dry goods business in Salina in 1808, at Park and Free streets.

Thomas was joined in the business by his son, Dennis, in 1834. Four years later, his father passed away, and Dennis took over the family business. In 1846, McCarthy left Salina and opened a new store in Syracuse.

As a testament to his success and the esteem in which he was held by his fellow citizens, McCarthy was elected mayor in 1853.

As a politician and business leader, he was a vocal champion of the city and believed strongly in the Syracuse’s future growth and greatness.

In 1855, he purchased the five-story building on the corner of South Salina and Fayette Streets from Henry Dillaye and proceeded to build the finest store in the city, bringing in the highest quality merchandise from New York City and Europe. It was during one of his trips to New York, that he rode in Otis’ machine.

Ever desirous that his beloved Syracuse have the finest and most modern of accommodations, he was motivated to bring the elevator to his store and his customers.

The elevator in McCarthy & Co. was operated by Mr. George E. Nearing, listed in the 1873 City Directory as the “elevator conductor” at 51 South Salina (McCarthy’s address). Mr. Nearing was the first resident of the Salt City to make this new profession a career.

By the end of the decade, steam powered elevators were installed in the Onondaga Country Savings Bank and the Syracuse Savings Bank buildings, in addition to several other buildings in the city.

People turned out from miles around to ride in McCarthy’s contraption. It was brilliant marketing.

Spurred by the popularity, an astute local furnace manufacturer, Hiram Graves, turned his attention to the production of this new machine and opened the city’s first elevator manufacturing facility at 78 East Water Street, in 1879.

In 1882, Graves sold his concerns to Edgar Houser who opened a new manufacturing facility right next door, at 74 (314) East Water Street.

Houser Elevator Company became the northeast’s preeminent manufacturer over the next ninety years. Houser Elevators were in hundreds of buildings all over New York, including the original elevators in the Upstate Medical War Memorial Arena. The company was purchased in 1976 by Dover Elevator Company, of Memphis Tennessee.

Though D. McCarthy & Co. and Houser Elevator Co. are long gone, there is an amazing piece of our city’s history in the most unlikely of places.

Just down South Salina Street, in the old Washington Block that dates to the late 1860s, in the basement of the delightful restaurant, Oh My Darling, there sits an original Houser Steam elevator, completely intact, gold barred cage and all.

Go check it out. While you’re there, order an old fashioned.

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