THE CARLSON BUILDING ELEVATOR OPERATORS - Anna Beckman and Hildur Beckman Bernardi

Most young people of my generation wore braces at one time or another to straighten their teeth.  I certainly did.  If you grew up in Evanston, Illinois there is a good chance that your orthodontist had his offices in the Carlson Building at 636 Church Street.  In those days wearing braces meant almost weekly visits to the orthodontist. The Carlson Building is a multi-story office building that provided elevators to get to the correct floor.  A big difference though was, that even in the 1960s and 1970s the Carlson Building still had elevator operators, as opposed to automatic elevators.  If you were an average Evanstonian you may have visited the Carlson Building hundreds of times over the years and probably never even thought about the ladies who operated the elevators.  They were part of the "fixtures" of the building and quietly performed their function year in and year out.

As you entered the elevator you told the operator the floor of your destination (hopefully adding "Please") and no matter how many people were in the elevator the operator only stopped at the floors that had been requested.  As you exited, you may have said "thank-you" but probably did not.  The Carlson Building elevator operators were two sisters, Anna Beckman and Hildur Beckman Bernardi and until their retirement were considered as necessary to the operation of the Carlson Building as the elevators themselves.  So let's take a trip down memory lane and find out about those two irreplaceable "fixtures."    

Anna O. Beckman and Hildur Victoria Beckman were both born in Rice Lake, Wisconsin.  Anna was born December 3, 1907 and Hildur was born April 9, 1910.  They were two of the daughters of Ernest Christofer "Frank" Beckman (1882-1964) and Anna Christina Naslin (1875-1960).  The family name was sometimes spelled "Backman."  Ernest and Anna both came from Skorped, Västernorrland, Sweden.  They both came to the US in July of 1902 aboard the SS Ariosto, and were married when they arrived in Boston, Massachusetts on August 1, 1902,  Ernst told the immigration officials their final destination was Rice Lake, Minnesota.  He may have misspoken or the officer may have misunderstood because Ernst and Anna ended up not in Rice Lake Minnesota, but in Rice Lake, Wisconsin. 

Ernst and Anna were blessed with seven children:  Garlade/Gustaf Frederick (1902-1991), Ernest Theodore (1904-1959), Anna O. (1907-2002), Oscar W. (1908-1971), Hildur Victoria (1910-1989), Agnes Lennaea - Mrs. Walter Erhart (1915-2008), and one unnamed child who died in infancy. 

The first US Census records for Anna and Hildur were in the census of 1910.  The census taker visited the Beckman family at their home in Barron County, Wisconsin on April 26, 1910.  Ernst said he worked as an employee on a farm that they owned, but they did have a mortgage.  Anna reported that she had given birth six times and that five of the children were still alive.  Their daughter Anna was 2 and the yet unnamed Hildur was 1/12.  

By the 1920 US Census many changes had taken place for the Beckman family.  First of all, Ernst and Anna reported that they had become Naturalized Citizens in 1911.  They were still living in Barron County, Wisconsin on the farm that they owned that was still mortgaged.  The family had grown and now Ernst and Anna had six children.  Everyone in the family except five year-old Agnes could both read and write.   

Anna Beckman came to Evanston first, "at the encouragement of friends," as she reported years later.  In a short time she was hired as the first full-time elevator operator in the newly constructed Carlson Building at 636 Church Street.

I have previously related the story of Victor Carlson and the Carlson Building:

https://undereverytombstone.blogspot.com/2015/10/he-left-his-mark-on-downtown-evanston.html

In a nutshell the Carlson Building was a ten-story 200 unit medical office building built in late 1925.  In addition to its location in downtown Evanston, the Carlson Building was one of the first office buildings to be constructed especially to house medical offices - doctors, dentists, etc.  Each suite was completed with the additional electrical power and additional plumbing that medical offices would require.  Although some suites were leased to other types of tenants, the Carlson Building remains to this day primarily a medical office building.

When the Carlson building was built it 1925 in was outfitted with two elevators.  Most elevators of that period required an operator as opposed to the "automatic" or "self service" elevators of later years.  During this time automatic elevators were illegal in many parts of the country because they were thought to be unsafe.  Victor Carlson's elevators required operators and so Anna Beckman was hired by Victor Carlson in 1926.  According to the sisters, Anna then "enticed her sister to join her (in Evanston)".

But Hildur Beckman did not immediately join Anna in the Carlson Building.  In 1928 while living in Evanston, Hildur met Dominick Thomas Bernardi (1908-1959).  Sometimes he went by "Thomas D. Bernardi."  Love bloomed and the couple was married.  In 1929 they were blessed with a daughter, Betty Belle - Mrs. James Mattson (1929-1992).

The 1930 US Census finds Hildur, her husband and daughter renting an apartment at 2115 Ashland in Evanston.  A parking lot occupies that space today.  Their rent was $22.00 per month.  Twenty two year-old Dominic was a "Laborer in a Greenhouse."  Twenty year-old Hildur and one year-old Betty did not work outside the home.  They were all US citizens, and Dominic and Hildur could both read and write.

I could not find Anna Beckman in the 1930 US Census, but the Evanston Directory for 1929 shows her living at 1612 Central Street in Evanston.  A parking lot occupies that space now.

The Evanston Directory for 1931 shows her living at 7521 N. Sheridan Road in Chicago:

7521 N. Sheridan Road, Chicago

The directories show her as an elevator operator but not as an employee of the Carlson Building.  Instead her employer is listed as "Renting Serv Corp." perhaps an umbrella company for employees of Victor Carlson's various properties.

In March of 1930 Victor Carlson's creditors forced him into bankruptcy.  The stock market had collapsed in 1929 and caused many empires to fall apart, including Victor Carlson's.  Ultimately Carlson lost the building that bears his name, but that did not seem to affect Anna Beckman who continued to work as an elevator operator.

By 1936 Hildur's husband Dominic Bernardi was unemployed.  The Great Depression was underway, and work for laborers was very hard to find.  So Hildur went to work - first as a maid at The Elmgate Manor apartment hotel in Evanston and then as an elevator operator.  Not with her sister at the Carlson Building, but according to the Evanston Directory at Lord's Department Store in downtown Evanston.  Perhaps Hildur needed to gain some elevator experience because in a 1975 interview the sisters reported that Hildur joined Anna in the Carlson Building as an elevator operator in 1936.

But the 1940 US Census does not bear that out.  According to the Census, Hildur Bernardi was an "Addressograph Operator" for a "Retail Department Store," probably Lord's.  Hildur and Dominick and Betty were renting an apartment at 1010 Main Street for which they paid $38.00 per month. 

1010 Main Street, Evanston

Dominick Bernardi was employed again - he was a "Laborer" for a "Manufacturer of Weatherproof Nails."  It is interesting to look at the family's educational status.  Dominick had gone as far as the seventh grade, Hildur through the second year of High School, and eleven year old Betty had completed fourth grade.

I was successful in locating Anna Beckman in the 1940 US Census.  She lived in the "Claridge Hotel" at 319 Dempster Street in Evanston.  

The Claridge Hotel - 319 Dempster Street, Evanston

She said she was thirty two years old, that she worked all year as an "Elevator Operator" in an "Office Building."  She also said that she worked forty-eight hours per week.  Finally, she said she had been living in the same address in 1935.

We don't know exactly when she left Lord's Department Store, but it is safe to say that Hildur Beckman Bernardi joined her sister Anna Beckman as an elevator operator in the Carlson Building sometime in the early 1940s.

The 1975 interview with the Evanston Review gave us an insight into what the sisters were like.

"We love our jobs."

"We must know more people in Evanston that anyone."

"When we walk down the street we get 'helloed' to death."

They talk in tandem, one completing a statement, the other adding to it...never interrupting, merely juxtapositioning their comments as they do their elevator departures at 636 Church Street.

The two sisters admit that they have greeted two generations, maybe three generations of doctors' patients.  "We see them grow from babies, to mothers and fathers, then to grandparents."

An oft-reported phrase is "Oh, I remember your father when he was your age."

Some of the old familiar faces move away, then come back to find that Anna and Hildur are still on the job.  Hildur and Anna like it that way.  They enjoy their jobs.  Anna says: "We work hard, mentally and physically.  We must make thousands of trips up and down per day."

Hildur: "And we answer hundreds of questions a day.  People who don't see the building directory, ask us where to find doctor so and so.  Some even ask how much a doctor charges.  We know the doctors' hours and their days off, information one won't find in the directory."

Anna:  "Many of the passengers tell us their complaints - their problems, their ailments."  They listen but don't gossip.

"Some people complain about the parking, as they rush in late for their appointments."  But the loyal Carlson Building employees add, "that the same people are lucky they can shop and have lunch in the same area.  Oh, and the doctors.  We know them pretty well, too.  We know their habits, their moods, when they have something on their minds."

And the sisters insist they don't discuss their aches and pains to the doctors on their way up and down.

"There was one doctor," Hildur recalled, who is retired, "who, if he thought we weren't feeling well, would insist on our coming right to his office for a check-up - no matter how busy he was, or how many people he had waiting."  

Anna and Hildur are grateful they are in pretty good health.  When they have been away for illness the receptions they received on their return were "unbelievable" they chime.

One year, after Hildur returned after being hospitalized, she was surprised with a luncheon in the Orrington Hotel.  And Anna, after a similar absence, was treated to a luncheon arranged by a dentist's wife in the Dominion Room.

Two years ago one of the dentists and his wife invited them to their 50th wedding anniversary reception in Lake Forest.  "We had more fun," recalls Anna.  "We knew everyone there," adds Hildur.

One year they spent 11 days in Hawaii as guests of the former owner of Lyman-Sargent's drug store and his wife.  "We have a standing invitation to visit," they tell.  Each Christmas we receive a card saying, "Isn't it about time you girls came back?"

On the job, the sisters are always ready for the unexpected.  "We've had lots of people faint," comments Hildur.  "And we've taken down a few dead ones," adds Anna.  She explains that they didn't die in the elevator, but of heart attacks elsewhere in the building.

"Once we had a young woman faint after coming out of a dentist's office.  We laid her down on the elevator floor and called the dentist she had just left.  It helps if we know which doctor to contact."

Anna:  "We can tell right off by looking at a person if he is going to faint or be sick.  We try to find out right away who his doctor is.  Then we summon him right away."

The sisters help the arrivals on crutches, in wheelchairs, with canes or walkers.  "It is sad," says Anna, "to see some of the people we remember as young and vibrant and at their very best."

Everybody who knows the sisters calls them by their first names. But some call Hildur, Hilda.  She doesn't seem to mind.  She is merely surprised because Hildur is on her name tag.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, I wore braces on my teeth as a teenager and remember going to the Carlson Building countless times during those years.  I was of course aware of the two elevator operators and it was obvious they were sisters but frankly I never paid much attention to either of them.

That changed in the late 1970s when my dentist retired and I didn't care for his replacement.  I needed to find a new dentist and at first didn't know how to go about it.  Then I realized that there was a resource right in the Carlson Building!   One morning I approached one of the sisters (I don't remember which) and said "I need to find a new dentist.  I figure you know all about all the doctors and dentists here so you would be the best source to recommend a good dentist for me."  Hildur (or Anna) responded "We are not really supposed to recommend one particular dentist over another but perhaps I can help you.  Would you be willing to go to a female dentist?"  (Remember, this was the 1970s).  "Sure," I responded, "as long as she is good."  Then Hildur (or Anna) responded, "there is a new dentist in Dr. Hodur's office.  She's brand new - her name is Marguerite Kelly and she's very nice.  We've heard nothing but good things about her."  I told Hildur (or Anna) that my great-grandmother was named Margaret Kelly so that was a good omen, and I called Dr. Kelly for an appointment.  She turned out to be every bit as good as her recommendation and I stayed with her until she moved her practice to the far southern suburbs of Chicago.  

As automatic elevators became more commonplace some people recommended that Hildur and Anna be replaced.  Bruce Goodman, who owned the Carlson Building in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s was asked if the building ever considered putting in automatic elevators.  He responded, "Yes, but we couldn't give the people the type of service we do without Anna and Hildur, who are our greeters, our front door, our P.R.  They are beloved people - a great asset to the building, and because of them we have tight security.  If they notice anyone or anything suspicious they report it immediately.  They are the main reason we haven't put in automatic elevators." 

But life goes on for Anna and Hildur, as it does for all of us.  Anna never married, but Hildur's husband Thomas D. Bernardi died in 1959 and is buried in Memorial Park Cemetery in Skokie:

I was not able to find out exactly when Hildur and Anna retired but it was probably around 1980 when Hildur would have been 70 and Anna was 73.  They both wished to remain together and to remain in Evanston, so they moved into the Presbyterian Home at 3200 Grant Street in Evanston:

The Presbyterian Home, Evanston, Illinois

Hildur Beckman Bernardi died December 29, 1989 in Evanston.  She was 79 years-old.  Here is her Death Notice from the Chicago Tribune of January 2, 1990:

Hildur was buried next to her husband Thomas at Memorial Park Cemetery in Skokie:

Anna Beckman died May 27, 2002 in Evanston at the age of 94.  Here is her Death Notice from the Chicago Tribune of May 29, 2002:

I was originally unable to locate where Anna Beckman had been buried.  her Death Notice said the interment was private and she has not been dead for 20 years so I couldn't get her Death Certificate.  I reached out to the N.H. Scott & Hebblethwaite Funeral Home and they told me that Anna was buried next to her sister in the Mausoleum Annex section, West ½ of Lot 5, Block 12.  Unfortunately her grave is not marked:

Here are Anna and Hildur in the place we remember them best:

Scripture tells us that there is a ladder that reaches from heaven to earth (Jacob's Ladder).  But that was a long time ago.  Perhaps modernization has taken place and there are now elevators carrying men and angels from earth to heaven.  If that is the case, I'm sure that Anna Beckman and Hildur Beckman Bernardi have taken up their positions as the Heavenly Elevator Operators.

May Anna Beckman and Hildur Beckman Bernardi rest in peace.

Special thanks, as always, to Mike Kelly who provided valuable research materials for this article.