Memorial Day Ride on the FAMOUS Otis Touch Autotronic Elevators at Sibley Square in Rochester, NY

Filmed on April 27th, 2022 with ‪@geneseetrainselevators2448‬.
Since today is Memorial Day and we're honoring those who fought and died for our Great Country, I figured it would be appropriate to ride some COMPLETELY ORIGINAL AMERICAN-MADE Otis Autotronic Elevators, located at the former Sibley's Department Store in Downtown Rochester, which was once one of the Most Prestigious Department Stores in America in what was once one of America's Finest Cities'.
Since then, much has changed and this place is now a mixed used property known as Sibley Square, and 4 out of the 5 Passenger Elevator banks in the building have recently been modernized. This bank of elevators is now the LAST Original Bank of Autotronic Elevators left in the Building, and while I am sad the other elevators in the building are modded now, I'm still glad I got to see one and these elevators were still REALLY COOL!
They definitely aren't in the greatest condition as only 1 out of the 3 elevators in the bank still works (the third elevator was decommissioned and ripped out MANY years ago, and the 2nd elevator was decommissioned around 2016 or 2017) and the elevator we did ride has a somewhat worn out COP and has a tendency to Overlevel and the call stations don't light up and haven't in years, but I'm still glad to see these are still original given how RARE Autotronic and Touch Sensitive Otis fixtures are getting!!! And even though this elevator is known for overleveling and acting a bit weird, it didn't have any issues during the filming of this video, the ride is VERY SMOOTH, it's quite quick for 6 floors and the Bells on the upper floors are ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!!!
All in all, this was an absolutely GREAT elevator in a beautiful building that while not in the greatest condition ran very nicely and I'm glad to see is still original and hopefully won't be modernized anytime soon!
For those wondering if this bank will eventually be modernized, it's hard to say at this time. The rest of the elevators in the building that were modernized were done back in 2017-2018 and 2020 respectively, and the section of the building these elevators are located in was closed for renovations to the lobby from Mid 2019-Early 2021 and during that time, the cab on this elevator was redone a bit. That said though, renovations are not yet done on the upper floors, and the majority of those using this elevator were construction workers. I have a feeling that once renovations are fully completed, this elevator bank will be modernized too, but if it does, I'm definitely glad I got these when I did! The rides on these were WELL WORTH IT!!!
The building as a whole was absolutely beautiful, this elevator bank is located right by a Set of 1930s Otis Escalators as well as an Old Clock, and if you think these elevators are Awesome, wait till you see the Freight Elevators!!! They're EVEN MORE EPIC than these!!!
But in the meantime, I hope everyone has a good and safe Memorial Day, and I hope you all enjoy some rides on these VERY FAMOUS & BEAUTIFUL Historic Elevators that are sadly the last Original Autotronic Elevators remaining at Sibley's!
Installed/Replaced in Circa Late 1950s. (Replaced some Manually Controlled Otis Elevators from 1904)
Call Stations replaced in Circa 1990s.

[@hotelfan9936]

that building looks cool and the elevators are nice as well!:)

[@mattmoreira210]

Glad to see the MPE matches the design of its electromechanical counterparts 😁

[@formerx]

Saw those touch-buttons in a local hospital when I was 11 and fell in love!

[@josepablowattson405]

very good

[@upanddownadventures]

jimster586 has a video of riding the right car (uploaded in 2009). It has Otis touch buttons, and looks like it may only serve floors 1 and 2 (and possibly more floors in the past, as there are 8 floor buttons, 6 of which are completely unlabeled). In the video there is no trace of the right car on the 5th floor. The middle car (which I rode in 2012) had Adams fixtures on the inside. Unfortunately on my visit I didn't ride the left car as I didn't know it was original. The main tower elevators had a similar arrangement (some cars had Adams, some cars had Otis touch buttons). The indicators on these also don't seem to behave like vintage Otis installations. My best guess is that these elevators are on original controllers (especially since they pre-door), but got a selector overlay (solid state/microprocessor replacement for the mechanical Otis selector). I'm guessing the car with Adams fixtures only got a fixture replacement. They are older pre-ADA Adams fixtures, likely from the late 1980s or so. I'm not sure why they replaced the fixtures on only 1 of 3 elevators. It also looks like some (maybe all?) of the door equipment was replaced. These may have once had the old Otis door equipment that makes a very distinctive sound (possibly caused by the interlock, but not sure). They did somewhat redo the cabs on these. Does this car have a very rare Otis nameplate? Some of the elevators had a very rare Otis nameplate that I have seen on few other elevators original or modernized. The escalators may or may not be defunct, not sure. I don't think they are from the 1930s. I am guessing the original escalators may have been wooden, and were later replaced with metal escalators. 8:39 This is interesting. I wonder if some other old Otis installations with Black Button or Lexan fixtures behave this way (all car calls canceled when elevator reaches the last call in the direction it is going). I don't think so, but I may test this.

[@FloridianElevators]

The video you're referring to of Jimster riding the right car was actually in the other 6 story bank here that got modded. The call stations were still original on the bank in that video. As for the indicator behavior, it is likely the selectors were upgraded in either the 70s or Early 80s. I've noticed that many later Relay Logic Otis installed from that time don't blink when the indicators change floors like installs from the 60s and prior do, and the Starks Building in Louisville had very similar behaving indicators to these and I was told by the security guy there who used to be the state elevator inspector that the Selectors were upgraded in the 70s, so it's likely the same happened here too. I did not notice a rare Otis nameplate on these. According to what I can find online as well as what signs in the building say, the Escalators are indeed from the 1930s. The building apparently was going to/did restore them, but as to if they'll be working anymore, I'm not sure. And lastly, i find the call cancel feature only to work on Otis Touch and Otis Pop Out elevators. It doesn't seem to work on Lexan or Black Button, at least not on ones I've ridden.

[@geneseetrainselevators2448]

I’m glad these are still here. I was told they were getting modded when they closed down for renovations in 2019-2020, but turns out, they are still here… :)

[@SamSitar]

they should keep the touch buttons.

[@VancityElevators]

ooh, epic.