A Peculiar Discovery

These photos come from Kim Cadwell of Eagle Elevator who visited southeastern Minnesota in 2010. Upon taking a walk around the area, she happened upon a vacant lot with this birdcage elevator cab just sitting there. As was common around the turn of the 20th century, the cab’s upper-canopy corner scrollwork and flower rosettes mounted to the lower cab walls are cast iron, while the cage itself is a combination of bars and rivets assembled by a black-smith. The vacant lot is along the Mississippi River, the banks of which were at one time considered to be south-eastern Minnesota’s Gold Coast. Cadwell speculates that the cab may have come from a one-time summer home in the area.