MINNEAPOLIS -- A buzz and a red light on the panel alerts Lee Bowser that his elevator is being summoned.

Bowser closes the inner brass gate, careful not to pinch a finger. He turns a large crank slightly to the right — about the 1 o’clock position— and the outer door rumbles shut.

He then pulls it to the 3 o’clock spot, and the cab lifts up. It rises until it nears the fourth floor of downtown Minneapolis’ Young-Quinlan Building, where Bowser’s smooth release brings it gently to a stop.

“How are you ladies doing today?” he asked a couple of office workers seeking transport to the ground floor. After more cranks, pulls and releases, Bowser opens the gate and wishes the pair a good day.

Bowser is most likely the last elevator operator in Minnesota to serve an office building.

The 65-year-old can be found ferrying people up and down in the century-old, pewter-and-brass car every Tuesday through Thursday.

Owners of the property, which sits at the corner of South Ninth Street and Nicollet Mall, modernized all of the building’s other elevators decades ago — except this one original cab.

“It’s one of the things that differentiates us from everybody else,” said Bob Greenberg of 614 Co., the local firm that has owned the building since the 1960s and operated it since 1985. “It’s part style points, it’s part image, and it’s part recognition that even though the world has changed, some things stay the same.”

Standing out became more important after the pandemic and subsequent rise of remote and hybrid work that created vacancies in more than 30% of downtown Minneapolis office space. Despite post-COVID downsizings, the Young-Quinlan Building is now almost completely full.

“People want to be here,” Bowser said, “because it’s a special place.”

Through the ups and downs

Bowser’s tenure with the building goes back to 1985, when he was introduced to Sue Greenberg, Bob Greenberg’s wife, at a barbecue. She was looking for someone to help with maintenance and engineering at the 614 Co.’s properties. Bowser took the job two months later.

He stayed with the firm until August 2020. Since Bowser has a lung condition, his employers encouraged him to apply for disability due to the increased risks of COVID.

Two years later, Sue Greenberg called again, this time with a part-time job proposal: Come back and run the manual elevator. Bowser accepted. His history with the building meant he already knew how the machine functioned.

“It’s antique, so you have to treat it as something delicate,” Bowser said.

Even more important is having the right personality for the job, he said. Bowser greets a couple hundred building tenants by name. He enjoys meeting those he doesn’t know. He’s learned to read people and can quickly assess whether they’re in the mood for a chat.

“Every day is different for everybody, and you don’t know if they’re having a good day or a bad day,” Bowser said. “But if I can make their day just a little bit brighter, I’m doing my job.”

A century of evolution

The Greenbergs are looking to hire more elevator operators. They plan to keep the manual cab going as long as they can maintain it.

Bowser is planning to stick around until 2030. After that, he said, he’s planning to retire and move overseas.

When the Young-Quinlan Building opened in June 1926, it housed a state-of-the-art women’s department store owned by pioneering businesswoman Elizabeth Quinlan. After the store closed in 1985, the Greenbergs transformed the five-story building into a mixed-use office space with Polo Ralph Lauren and Crate & Barrel as retail anchors.

At the time, all of the building’s elevators were operated manually by a cohort of female operators donning white gloves and blazers. Mike Logan, CEO of the Minneapolis Regional Chamber, said he has vivid memories of those operators from his early career days working across the street at Dayton-Hudson Corp. and Target.

The Young-Quinlan Building then felt like the peak of luxury, said Logan, who now offices there with the chamber. Its historic charm, boutique elegance and intimate community never changed, he said, despite its ongoing efforts to evolve.

“As there are many buildings that are pretty vacant downtown, this one seems to constantly reinvent itself,” Logan said.

The Dakota jazz club and restaurant, for instance, recently opened an event-and-performance venue in the building’s former JB Hudson Jewelers space, marking a pioneering attempt to transform Nicollet Mall’s former big-box stores into more experiential concepts.

Bowser has evolved the role of elevator operator, too, keeping things more casual in dark jeans and a T-shirt — though he wore a crisp white button down to the building’s 100th anniversary party Thursday, attended by U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Mayor Jacob Frey.

“We’ll see what the next century brings,” Greenberg said.

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