Connecticut has one of the oldest housing stocks in the country, and it shows. Towns across the state are full of colonial and center-chimney homes dating back to the 1700s and 1800s, along with Victorian houses and Colonial Revivals built with two or three full stories and narrow, steep staircases connecting them. Many of these homes have been lovingly maintained or restored over generations, but they were never built with an elevator in mind, and modifying a historic home’s structure to fit a traditional elevator’s pit and shaft can be a serious undertaking, especially in a designated historic district.

That’s exactly the kind of home a PVE elevator was built for. Because the unit is self-supporting and needs no pit, shaft, or machine room, it can go into an 18th-century colonial in Litchfield County or a Victorian in Hartford’s West End without touching the original framing. Most installations are done in two to three days, which matters for homeowners who want to avoid a long, disruptive renovation in a house that’s stood for two hundred years.

For homeowners planning to stay in their Connecticut home long term, a PVE elevator means the stairs stop being the reason to move. It connects a main floor to an upstairs bedroom or a finished lower level without reworking the home’s historic character. And because the system draws minimal power and pairs easily with solar, it fits naturally alongside the growing interest in energy-efficient upgrades for older New England homes.