It creaks and groans and has, on occasion, suddenly stopped and trapped people inside.
But for the past 112 years, the elevator at the Union Club of British Columbia has done a yeoman’s job of getting countless members, guests, staff, freight, food and furniture between four floors of the historic building.
While it may not be the oldest lift in the province, the Union Club’s elevator is believed to be one of the oldest still in operation and has long been considered a “hidden gem” in the private club.
That ends next week when Richmond Elevator starts pulling out the old wood-panelled lift, its flexed-brass doors and the inner workings of steel pulleys and cables, to make way for a state-of-the-art elevator.
“It’s starting to break down about three times a year and there are times when someone gets stuck in there and, of course, you have to call the elevator company or the fire brigade,” said David Hammonds, general manager of the club on Gordon Street.
“I think everyone here feels a little bit sad that the old girl is going. But everybody also realizes the safety aspects and making sure it’s efficient.”
Installed in 1913, the lift was designed by Elisha Otis, considered the founder of the elevator after his invention of the safety brake, a device that made lifts safe for moving people and products and allowing cities to grow vertically. Otis Elevator Company marked its 172nd anniversary this year.
The oldest elevator in British Columbia remains the birdcage-design lift in the former Law Courts and Maritime Museum historic building in Bastion Square. The building has been vacant since 2014, after it was deemed seismically unsafe for occupation.
British Columbia’s first judge, Matthew Baillie Begbie, held court there and was later named the Union Club’s first president.
Hammonds said the new elevator at the Union Club will cost about $400,000 and the design will fit aesthetically with the historic interior features. “It’s going to be a new elevator, but we don’t want to see any stainless steel. The wood panelling on the walls and roof will almost be the same as the old one. The doors and the fixtures will be brass. The carpets will match.”
The project will take three months to complete. This week, a chair lift was installed on the staircase to the lower level, allowing members easier access to the bottom floor and dining and ballroom.
Richmond Elevator is expected to remove the elevator box from the bottom floor. A crane will be used to lift the pulley system out of the roof and onto a truck before the new lift system is installed. A street closure is planned when that work is taking place.
Access to the pulley system is through a door next to the elevator on the top floor, with a steep four-metre ladder staircase to the rooftop.
In a commemorative book published in 2004 to mark the Union Club’s 125th anniversary, the elevator is briefly mentioned. “Guests admire the ironwork gates and stately clattering progress of the lift, and a trip between floors is a brief journey into our past,” says an excerpt.
But the book notes that earlier members were less appreciative.
In November 1913, shortly after the lift was installed, B.H.T. Drake wrote in the club’s suggestion book: “That a reward be offered to anyone giving information as to the whereabouts of any freight lift in B.C. which can make one-10th of the noise made by the lift installed in the club.”
The book noted that “no later entry tells us whether anyone earned the reward.”
The Union Club’s landmark location, which has 22 guest rooms and caters to banquets and meetings, was named a National Historic Site in 2016.
The private club, based on British club models, was founded in 1879. It now has a membership of 2,500 resident and non-resident members and has affiliations with 450 private clubs around the world.
