Otis Elevator
Most Yonkers factories huddled around the Nepperhan where a series of mill ponds and dams were constructed to provide power. Among the new industries: Otis Elevator, the Waring Hat Company—the nation’s largest at the time, and Alexander Smith Carpet Mills—where new techniques revolutionized carpet manufacturing.
In 1852, just a few block south of today’s Larkin Plaza at the Yonkers Bedstead Manufacturing Company, Elisha Graves Otis developed the world’s first safety elevator.
Osterheld & Eickemeyer was one of Yonkers’s early industries. Rudolf Eickemeyer was one of the many immigrants whose inventions helped develop the town’s industries.
Smith products were known around the world—in 1892, carpeting was sent to Moscow for the Tsar’s coronation and Smith was selected to carpet the Winter Palace.
