By David W. Dunlap

New York Times

NEW YORK >> Here’s what you could do in 1920s Manhattan that you can’t do today: Catch what’s playing at the Roxy or who’s playing at the Polo Grounds. Buy a pair of alligator shoes at Franklin Simon or see a pair of alligators at the Aquarium. Meet your spouse — or whomever — under the clock at the Biltmore Hotel.

Here’s something you can still do: Ride the wooden escalators at Macy’s.

Macy’s is emerging from a $400 million, four-year renovation that has opened up and brightened the flagship store at Herald Square. A sealed-up entryway on 34th Street has been reclaimed. So have big bay windows on the sixth floor, which now frame views from the new Stella 34 Trattoria.

But the modernizing impulse stopped at 20 Otis escalators of oak and ash that have steadily trundled shoppers from one floor to the next for as long as 95 years.

Bu-da-bumbum, they go. Bu-da-bumbum, bu-da-bumbum, bu-da-bumbum.

“When I would tell people about the renovation,” Steven Derwoed, the senior vice president for store design and merchandising, said, “without exception, the first thing they’d say was, ‘Please tell me you’re keeping the wooden escalators.’”

Hard-core hardwood enthusiasts have posted dozens of videos on YouTube. Borrowing from the vocabulary of rail fans, admirers of the Macy’s escalators have described their affectionate obsession as “handrailfanning.”

(Incidentally, the best spot for handrailfanning is on the sixth floor, where four wooden escalators — Nos. 54, 55, 64 and 65 — converge at one landing. Even numbers mean “down,” odd numbers mean “up.”)

Derwoed and Alan Westenberger, the director of facilities at Macy’s Inc., said there was never really any question of replacing the escalators.

“They’re iconic to our brand,” Westenberger said. “At the end of the day, they operate effectively, they meet all the necessary codes and they’re reliable.”

Confirmation of the second point came in a statement from the Buildings Department: “These escalators are in compliance with requirements of New York City construction codes for existing installations.”

Still, their survival seems nothing less than miraculous.

Between 1920 and 1930, as Macy’s expanded toward Seventh Avenue and modernized its 1902 building, 40 Type L “Escalator” moving stairs (an Otis trademark at the time) were installed throughout the store, Westenberger said. In the 1990s, 19 were modified with metal treads, keeping the oak side walls.

The unmodified escalators are distinguishable by the jumbo cleats on the step treads. They are 1/2 inch wide. The treads — cleats and all — were milled from single pieces of ash, Westenberger said. Ash is a hardwood often used for flooring.

Replacement cleats can be spotted by the presence of screw heads. But Westenberger said some step treads in use today are original, as are the side walls and some mechanical parts. Most of the drive motors have been changed.

Only one Type L escalator has ever been taken out. That was during the recent renovation, to accommodate a Coach shop on the main floor, designed by Shohei Shigematsu of OMA.

Westenberger said workers carefully preserved salvageable elements like steps, rollers, handrail assemblies and side walls. Having a store room full of spares can mean the difference between repairing an escalator in a day and waiting up to three weeks for a replacement part to be fabricated.

The big gaps between the cleats have long made the escalators a bit dicey for anyone in high heels. (That’s why I always shop in flats.) Yellow “caution” stickers warn of the peril.

Signs also urge attention to children, who may run afoul of the long, toothlike “comb plates” from which the cleats emerge and into which they disappear.

On July 2, 2010, Maxlee Tejada, 4, dropped a water bottle on an escalator approaching the first floor. As he tried to grab it, his right pinkie was caught under a comb plate. A Macy’s employee stopped the escalator, but the finger had been severed. An attempt to reattach it surgically proved unsuccessful.

His mother, Natalia Gell-Tejada, sued Macy’s and two companies responsible for maintenance of the escalators. Her negligence complaint against the companies was dismissed by the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court in 2014.

A settlement was reached between Macy’s and Gell-Tejada “to the satisfaction of all parties,” said Lawrence B. Saftler of Saftler & Bacher, a lawyer who represented the family. He said he was bound by a confidentiality agreement not to disclose the terms.

Without commenting on this or other incidents, Macy’s said in a statement: “To improve safety, we have added comb plate switches, skirt brushes and skirt switches. These additions are enhancements to the original manufacturer safety devices.” Skirt brushes run along both sides of the escalator, at about ankle level, to gently keep body parts and objects away from the mechanism. Switches stop the machinery automatically in case of a sudden jolt.

As one of the few operators of wooden escalators in the world, Macy’s has shared its hard-won expertise with Sydney Trains in Australia, which has wooden escalators at its Wynyard station and elsewhere.

“We’re a small club,” Derwoed said.

Bu-da-bumbum, bu-da-bumbum, bu-da-bumbum, bu-da-bumbum.

© 2015 The New York Times Company