American Profile magazine published a delightful article about Geraldine Bunn, who is the elevator attendant at the historic Jasper County Courthouse just off Route 66 in Carthage, Mo.
The courthouse needs an elevator attendant because the open-cage, wrought-iron elevator was installed in 1916 and is not an automatic model. Bunn has to align the elevator just so with upper floors so passengers don’t trip.
“In and of itself, the elevator is a tourist attraction,” says Judge Joseph Schoeberl, as he descends from his third-floor office and courtroom.
When Schoeberl steps out of the elevator, he pretends to trip over a slight gap between the floors, making Bunn laugh. “He’s always doing that to me,” she says.
Bunn provides a lift in every sense of the word. “She’s very cheery and brightens the day,” says Schoeberl, 62. “She’s like a cup of coffee in the morning.” […]
While modern push-button elevators are quick and efficient, they lack the personal touch of Bunn, who greets courthouse employees by name and says the best part of her job is meeting people.
“There are so many nice people,” she says. “Even the prisoners will speak and tell me to have a good day.”
Her passengers range from shackled and somber county jail inmates to happy hand-holding couples with freshly inked marriage licenses, as well as tourists traveling through town on Route 66. Older folks on tour buses and schoolchildren on field trips also line up for rides.
The article makes me want to pay a visit to the courthouse, take a ride on that elevator, and chat with Ms. Bunn.
I’ve gotten to ride in the elevator with Ms. Bunn. It was a very nostaglic thing, quite reminiscent of the days of the elevator in the Heer’s Building in Springfield — also on Route 66. Riding the elevator at Heer’s was a special treat when I was a little girl. If you are able to be in Carthage during the week, be sure to stop and take an elevator ride and see the nice things they have in the Jasper County Courthouse. The whole thing is one of those oft-unmentioned surprises you find along Route 66 in Missouri.
The article in “American Profile” about Geraldine Bunn, said at the end, working elevators are an “oddity” is today’s world. Not so. I work as an usher at the Milwaukee Performing Arts Theater, and we always run the elevators for the patrons. Barbara Taylor Milwaukee, WI
I would submit that perhaps a better word would be “rarity,” instead of “oddity,” as elevator operators are indeed rare in this age.