FLEDGELING SKYSCRAPER?

In 1853, Elisha Otis introduced the safety elevator, which prevented the fall of the cab if the cable broke. He demonstrated it at the New York exposition in the Crystal Palace a year later.
The first Otis Passenger Elevator was installed at 488, Broadway (corner Broome Street) in March 1957 in the E V Haughwout & Company departmental store (now a Staples Office Supplies store).

Whilst this building was not a skyscraper, the successful installation of this elevator enabling people to be safely transported up and down great heights, was of great importance to architecture because it permitted the building of skyscrapers......and you saw it first here on Broadway!