This is what it feels like when a “working artifact” morphs off the pages of history and into today. This particular artifact is located in the Birkbeck Building at 10 Adelaide Street East, Toronto, a historic 1908 building that houses the headquarters of the Ontario Heritage Trust. Bubelis is the trust’s architect and the man who decided to rebuild the elevator to look and operate as it did in 1908, the year the building opened.
Read MoreRecently our team was contacted to inspect a 19th century building where the new owner had found a hand-powered (pull-rope) elevator. Completely in tact and fully preserved complete with original rope and pulley, platform and counterweight system along with painted on data tags, it was immediately identified as an Otis-Fensom Elevator from the 1890’s.
Read MoreIn 1861, English-born machinist John Fensom first appeared in Toronto city directories. He and Charles Levey set up shop on Colborne Street and began making lathes. By 1864 the Fensom and Levey partnership had dissolved, and John Fensom was in business for himself. He set up shop on Adelaide Street West in 1867. There he remained for 15 years, first as John Fensom Iron Works, then in a venture called Gurney & Co. Central Iron Works from 1874 to 1878.
Read MoreExplore elevators and their indispensable role in cities and architecture across Toronto from the turn of the century to the latest advances in the vertical transportation industry.
Read MoreThe Canadian Otis Elevator Company, a subsidiary of the Otis Elevator Company of New York, started in a small factory in Hamilton, ON in 1902. Three years later, it merged with the sizable Fensom elevator works of Toronto to become the Otis-Fensom Elevator Company.
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