"The old elevator was an original piece of equipment, a pull-from-below version," Mariemont Inn Director of Operations, Bill Spinnenweber said.

The only finishing touches remaining to do in the elevator is add oak paneling to its interior and place an antique arrow dial (which indicates which floor the elevator is located) on the first floor.

The Inn has always had an elevator and it has never been out of commission for so long a time. SBI owners and management were worried that the shut-down of the elevator for so many weeks would incite numerous complaints.

The first week the elevator was taken out of commission a birthday party was being thrown in the Elizabethan Room below the Inn for a 90-year old woman. Needless to say, there were many elderly people present who needed to shuffle between floors.

But no one complained, and for nine weeks people learned what it was like many many years ago when elevators were non-existant and stairs were the only means of ascending and descending floors.