Hays Building

Abner Hays was a proponent of the elevator. His creative capitalistic endeavors did not go un-noticed throughout the business communities of the Midwest. The Hays Building, on Hays Boulevard, was an icon of its day. It towered above the other buildings on the main business district of Benton Ohio. 

What made his building iconic wasn’t simply its height, an anomaly when compared to the building that surrounded it, but its innovations.

Buildings were designed for the activities they were proposed to support. As cities grew with the advent of electricity, the one problem limiting a buildings capabilities was the transfer of materials from one section of the building to another. 

Hays introduced the elevator to the City of Benton. Having to purchase land that would accommodate the needs of the manufacturing structure, was expensive. The elevator allowed buildings to grow up, not out. 

In the 1850’s elevators were generally designed to lift materials using a series of ropes and pulleys, limiting their scope and efficiency.   Electricity made steel cables, motors, and axels that managed direction, allowed for greater quantities of material to be moved at greater speed. When Elijah Otis developed a breaking safety system for the elevator, it made the movement of individuals not only efficient, but safe.

Abner Hays, had an eye for the use of the latest  innovations to enhance the productivity of not only manufacturing, but office buildings, which were becoming a necessity as the commercialization and delivery of goods throughout the world demanded a new means of service.

Benjamin Hays, son of Abner Hays a real estate developer, turned the twelve story industrial building into a haven for local businesses needing secretaries, shipping clerks, and communication systems necessary for their industrialized products to be shipped to the populace of the country. Life was good for the Hays family until a day in 1928, a Thursday, at 11:15 AM. 

It was raining and the office building was overrun with shoppers wishing to avoid the savage lightning and the pelting rain that had imprisoned the city.

The upper eight floors of the Hays Building were dedicated to business practices of all manner; opticians, doctors, insurance agencies, and even a restaurant above the newly established businesses of Sears, Montgomery Wards, and Woolworths.

The storm that day was believed to be the cause of the failure of the buildings electrical system. Although it was the only building apparently affected by the storm, the consequences were tragic. Although other buildings in the area reported no similar activity had affected them, newspaper accounts of deaths numbering in the hundreds were reported.  People were stranded, the stairwells, the only exist for the majority of the visitors were inaccessible, having been locked to prevent access to unauthorized personnel.

Several hundred people mysteriously died that day, and no apparent reason for the deaths was established. One popular story emerged. Emile Shultz, the person in charge of building maintenance, who was claimed to have had a vendetta against the Hays family, was deemed responsible for the buildings failure and subsequent deaths. Although guilt was never assigned, Emile Shultz became unemployable and passed away from what his family reasoned, a betrayed heart.

The roaring twenties exploded into the stock market crash of 1929, and subsequent prelude to the Great Depression of the 30’s. The building emptied as businesses failed, and money was no longer spent on what were considered un-necessary luxuries. The building was closed and remained vacant for nearly fifty years, until the Great Grandson of Abner Hays, Wilhelm Hays, devised a plan to resurrect the building.

Seymore Allen Hays, Great, Great, Grandson of Abner, son to Wilhelm, the present owner and manager of the building, was an unusual boy. He, from the time of his birth failed to exhibit any normal reactions associated with pain. He’d fallen down the marble stairs of the old mansion, and other than a look of surprise, expressed no outward signs of distress. 

His parents had taken Seymore to many specialists to determine a cause for his inability to experience pain, but no results were found to be informative. Seymore's parents had grown used to his anomaly, and atrophied into unconcern, until the day they, along with Abagail Bean, Seymore’s Nany, visited the vacant building with an architect who was to devise a plan to refurbish the building to its former elegance and purpose.

While Seymore’s parents surveyed the upper stories, Ms. Bean and Seymore made their way to the basement where Ms. Bean busied herself examining the calendars that hung in many of the basement offices; mainly scantly clad women, advertising a variety of products of the time. Seymore being immune to pain, was often left to his own devices, and free to explore the world on his own.

Seymore had made his way to the office of Emile Shultz, the man reportedly believed responsible for the disaster that closed the Hays Building. Seymore rummaged through the molding books, magazines, and then became enamored by an antique clock that exhibited a brass monkey, seemingly climbing a chain that caused the gears to revolve, displaying the seconds minutes and hours on its face. The cogs of the clock had stopped that notable day, for no apparent reason. The clock did not require electricity to function but was operated by a series of internal weights that appeared to perpetually move the brass monkey of its own accord, climbing a chain that never reached a destination.

Seymore touched the monkey which unexpectedly jumped into motion, causing Seymore in his fright to fall, his ribs finding the edge of a trash can that rested beside the desk.

For the first time in his life, Seymore felt a sensation he found unexplainable as well as disturbing as it caused tears to form and roll down his face as he screamed at an unrecognized intrusion to, "leave me alone." Ms. Bean, hearing the noise rushed towards the disturbing sound fearing Seymore had done something to cause the commotion. As she turned into the hallway, she could see him standing alone, tears running down his cheeks, and shrieks erupting from his shaking form.

She, not being used to providing comfort to Seymore had no concept of what to do. She dabbed at his eyes with a kerchief she kept habitually in the sleeve of her blouse.  She took Seymore’s hand and ushered her charge up the stair well towards the exterior of the building. As they reached the door, she pushed the lever and to her relief the door swung open, leaving them on the sidewalk that circumvented the building. She pulled Seymore onto the boulevard where she stood impotent to aid his distress further. Seymore continued pleading for help to rid himself of this hurtful imposition.  

In the office of Emile Shultz the clock suddenly stopped. Seymore Hays, to the distress of Ms. Bean, crumpled in the same moment onto the sidewalk. In her confusion, she stepped into the street in hopes of soliciting help from a passing vehicle. 

Herman Shultz, in an attempt to throw his cigarette from the window, struck the coffee he balanced in his free hand, spilling it onto his lap. His scream woke the dog in the back seat who barked, just inches from Herman’s ear. He turned, the distraction preventing him from seeing the distraught Ms. Bean.

The car struck an animated Ms. Bean, throwing her onto the hood of the vehicle. The vehicle having missed Seymore who lay unconscious on the sidewalk, then collided with the railing that guarded the stairwell to the basement of the Hays Building causing Herman Shultz 's attempt to exit the vehicle by way of the windshield, a failure.

Herman Shultz accompanied Ms. Bean into the beyond. They, hand in hand, looked down upon the Hays Building as they left, each wondering why elevators or innovation were a necessity at all. All one needed to do to attain any height they imagined, was to die. That, and with just a little help from a Crossing Guard Angel, everything else was possible.