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.