Meet The Man Behind The Uplifting Roanoke Museum You've Probably Never Heard Of

Andrew Reams stands outside his ElevaTOURS exhibit in a small storage space in Southeast Roanoke. Reams is a self-described elevator enthusiast and a YouTube star who has collected nearly 1,000 pieces of elevator equipment for display. His YouTube channel recently passed 100,000 subscribers and averages more than 1 million views per month. PHOTO BY RALPH BERRIER JR. FOR THE ROANOKE RAMBLER

Andrew Reams weaved through the mazelike corridors inside a Southeast Roanoke storage building like an archaeologist searching an ancient catacombs for treasure.

In a way, that’s exactly what he was doing. He passed rows of storage units sealed with garage-style doors before stopping and unlocking one of them that looked like all the rest. He raised the door to reveal not chests of gold or jewels, but a 10-foot-by-12-foot room walled by corrugated steel and holding what looked like a tinkerers’ laboratory from a steampunk graphic novel — a lair of machine parts, wheels, levers, lights, push-buttons and other metal pieces.

The parts came from old elevators, skeletal pieces of equipment that Reams collects and displays in what he calls his International Elevator Museum, perhaps Roanoke’s most unusual tourist destination.