It wasn’t uncommon for artists, who lived in lofts in abandoned factories, to use freight elevators when they needed to move their art in and out of the building.
The elevator in South Sterley Lofts was invented by John G. Speidel, who learned the machinist’s trade in Balingen-Württemberg, Germany, his hometown. He worked as a draughtsman in Scranton for five years before he came to Reading in 1888 to build advanced machinery. He was an inventor and held patents on all of his products; he was the architect of his own plant. The Speidel name was known in markets all over the United States and abroad. Original publication in its entirety is available at berks.pa-roots.com/books/montgomery/s22.html.
AND THAT’S NOT ALL…
•Easy to identify, the crate elevator in South Sterley Lofts is branded with a Speidel cast nameplate, a common practice used by Speidel and other manufacturers of that time.
DID YOU KNOW?…
•At the turn of the century, elevator operators were often illiterate immigrants or migrant southern blacks who were drawn to major northern cities in search of a better way of life.
•In 1913, the state legislature of Wisconsin adopted that states first elevator code in 1913 due to the alarming rate of elevator accidents. Source: elevatorpreservation.com
