Historedia
Episode 1 of 1

First Passenger Elevator Installation

When
1857-03-23
Where
E.V. Haughwout Building
Part of
Elisha Otis's first passenger elevator installed at 488 Broadway

Elisha Otis installed the first passenger safety elevator at the E.V. Haughwout Building in New York City on March 23, 1857.

The hydraulic lift was designed by Otis for the building. It was the first safety elevator for passenger service. The installation occurred at the corner of Broome Street and Broadway, serving as a commercial novelty to attract customers.

Sources

  1. E. V. Haughwout Building Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-30
  2. Elisha Otis Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-04

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.