Just Waiting for Riders

Work was recently done on the sidewalk around the elevator entrance. It now looks like you can walk right in and take a ride, but we just have a little longer to wait. We expect the elevator coach to be delivered on Christmas Eve. The month of January will be spent assembling, installing, testing, and certifying the coach. We hope to open the doors to our first riders just before February 1st.

More Happening Than You Think

While we wait for the delivery of our elevator coach, work continues on some final details.

 

There will be a call button next to the lobby entrance. For now, it makes a great cat toy.

A view of the outside entrance to the elevator lobby.

This is the mechanical room which will house the elevator equipment when it arrives. The location was created out of former office space in the basement of the Albright.

Project Delayed Due to Elevator Delivery

The November 22nd issue of The Scranton Times-Tribune contained an article on project delays due to the delivery of the elevator coach. In the meantime, work continues. In the photo below you can clearly see a small lobby, newly constructed, where elevator riders will be able to wait for a coach without having to suffer the elements.

Facade Almost Complete

You can see from this photo that the installation of the facade for the elevator enclosure is almost complete. Every effort has been taken to make it match, as closely as possible after almost 120 years, the original stone used in the construction of the Albright.

The Forbidding Door

The photos below were taken during the day so why does it appear to be midnight outside? Solar eclipse? Some kind of terrible cataclysm? Well, no. Darkness is simply proof that the elevator enclosure has been completed. We are now waiting for the application of the facade and the delivery of the elevator itself. In a matter of weeks, this door, formerly the rear handicapped entrance, will be replaced by an elevator stop.

Proof that it is truly daytime. The outside elevator entranceway provides a glimpse of the contruction site.

First Signs of Facade

To use a metaphor that a librarian would love, we have the book in hand. Now we need to cover it with a dust jacket. With the elevator enclosure intact, workers began constructing the facade. In this photo you can see the red shale stones that will cover the lower part of the elevator enclosure and which closely match the brown medina base stone found on the Albright.

Elevator Shaft Almost Finished

The elevator shaft itself is nearing completion.

Unusual view of the top of the shaft as taken from the roof of the Children's Library.