Elevator. Various elevation techniques have been known since prehistoric times, but the first modern steam-driven person elevator was introduced in 1854. The Brighton Hotel was the first to install an elevator in 1865, and other hotels followed soon after. The elevator radically changed the pos- sibility of hotels to profitably rent rooms at floors above the ground level and the first floor. Elevators also became impor- tant in, for example, transportation systems, such as in sub- way stations.