I'm writing a Harlequin romance novel (yes, one of those), and I want my heroine to be in the business of restoring old office buildings in downtown Oakland. The buildings would date back to the 1920s or so. I especially need to know what kind of elevators such a building would have (not the original elevator, I would guess ) and how they would work or break down.

Can anyone supply that sort of information or point me to a source? TIA