AIKEN --- The Hotel Aiken, which opened in 1898 and has operated under different names, features an elevator that was installed in 1920 and is still used under hotel worker supervision.
Through the years, workers say, it has become quite an attraction.
"You'll have kids that want to ride it all the time," said Pat Coats, a front desk worker, adding that only hotel workers can run it.
The hotel's Web site touts the elevator as the oldest operating in South Carolina.
Another business, the Palmetto Candy and Tobacco Co. in Columbia, however, makes the same claim and seems to be older.
Tom Jackson Jr., that store's owner, says his business's elevator dates to 1913 and is used to move candy merchandise from floor to floor.
"This one actually has a piece of rope that you pull, and it's got a leather belt. It's stitched together by hand, and it pulls," he said. "...The thing about it is it doesn't break down. ... They built things to work back then."
Aiken's old elevator is certainly a unique holdover from a bygone era, said Ricia Hendrick, the president and publisher of Elevator World , which focuses on the past and future of elevators.
"That's really going back," she said of the Aiken elevator. "... Elevators are usually modernized about every 20 to 25 years."
Ms. Hendrick said older elevators are usually found in New York. A Manhattan apartment building has three hydraulic machines installed in 1883 that are considered among the oldest elevators in the world.
"A lot of times the building goes before the elevator does," Ms. Hendrick said with a laugh.
Modern elevators are designed so the mechanics take up less space and use less energy, she said.
At the Hotel Aiken, an operator uses a hand lever, pulling it out or pushing it in to make the elevator go up or down.
It's a maneuver that can sometimes prove tricky.
"You just have to look at the floor to stop at each floor," Ms. Coats said. "It doesn't automatically stop. So you could end up a couple of feet above it or below it if you don't time it at the right place."
Reach Preston Sparks at (803) 648-1395, ext. 110, or preston.sparks@augustachronicle.com.
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