Lake Street Transfer station

 

The Lake Street Elevated Railway Company was incorporated on February 7, 1888.^[4] Reincorporated as the Lake Street Elevated Railroad Company on August 24, 1892, to avoid legal issues,^[5] its line, the Lake Street Elevated, commenced revenue operations at 5:00 a.m. on November 6, 1893, between California station and the Market Street Terminal.^[6] The new line had 13 stations,^[c] one of which was located on Wood Street.^[8] The Elevated was powered by steam locomotives until May 9, 1896, when its tracks were electrified.^[9] The Lake Street Elevated Railroad, having been dogged by financial issues since its inception, was reorganized as the Chicago and Oak Park Elevated Railroad (C&OP) on March 31, 1904.^[10]

 

The Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad Company, another founding company of the Chicago "L", was granted a fifty-year franchise by the Chicago City Council on April 7, 1892.^[11] Unlike the Lake Street Elevated, which operated a single line, the Metropolitan had a main line that proceeded west from downtown to Marshfield Junction, where it split into three branches: one northwestern branch to Logan Square (which in turn had a branch to Humboldt Park^[d]), one branch due west to Garfield Park, and one southwestern branch to Douglas Park.^[15] While the competing South Side and Lake Street Elevateds used steam traction, the Metropolitan never did; although it had originally intended to, and indeed had built much of its structure under the assumption that locomotives would be used,^[16] it decided in May 1894 to have electrified tracks instead,^[17] making it upon its opening the first revenue electric elevated railroad in the United States.^[18]

The Metropolitan's tracks on the Logan Square branch^[d] were finished up to Robey by the middle of October 1894, and were given power in April 1895 for test and inspection runs.^[12] The Metropolitan began service at 6:00 a.m. on Monday, May 6, 1895, between Robey on the Logan Square branch and Canal on the main line.^[19] Eleven stations opened that day, one of which was on Lake Street.^[19] Since the Lake station crossed the Lake Street Elevated, its tracks and platforms were much higher than elsewhere on the "L".^[1]

 

The Lake Street Transfer station in context. The station itself is marked by a blue marker.

  The Lake Street Elevated

  The Metropolitan's trackage prior to 1951

  The Loop^[13]

  The Milwaukee–Dearborn subway and Congress Line^[20]

In 1911 the four companies operating the "L" – the C&OP and Metropolitan, as well as the South Side and Northwestern Elevated Railroads – merged operations under the aegis of Chicago Elevated Railways (CER) while keeping their separate identities.^[21] CER instituted full integration of crosstown service on the "L" and free transfers between the lines in 1913, having been mandated to do so by the City Council.^[22] As part of the same ordinance, the Metropolitan and C&OP were required to construct a transfer station where their tracks intersected; since the Metropolitan already had its Lake station on the site, this meant in practice that the C&OP had to build a station to connect with it.^[23] In the process of constructing the new transfer, the C&OP closed its nearby Wood station.^[23] Free transfers commenced on November 3, 1913, but the C&OP's new station was not finished at that point. As an interim measure, "walking" transfers between Wood station and the Metropolitan's Lake station were issued.^[23] After a few weeks, the C&OP's station was complete, and the Wood station was closed.^[23] Throughout the transfer station's existence, it was used as a point of transfer for passengers of one of the lines to switch to the other when construction or maintenance work rendered a line unable to go downtown.^[e]

CER acted as a de facto holding company for the "L" – unifying its operations and instituting the same management across the companies – but kept the underlying companies intact.^[26] This continued until the companies were formally merged into the single Chicago Rapid Transit Company (CRT) in 1924, which assumed operations on January 9; the former C&OP and Metropolitan were designated as the respective Lake Street and Metropolitan Divisions of the CRT for administrative purposes.^[27] Although municipal ownership of transit had been a hotly-contested issue for half a century, the publicly-owned Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) would not be created until 1945,^[28] and would not assume operation of the "L" until October 1, 1947.^[29]

The new CTA began experiments to streamline service on the "L"; among them was skip-stop, which began as an experiment on the Lake Street Elevated on April 5, 1948.^[2] Stations in between Pulaski and the Loop, exclusive, became either "A" or "B" stations and were serviced by respective "A" or "B" trains during weekdays.^[2] Despite being located in this area, Lake Street Transfer was exempt from this system and continued to be serviced by all Lake Street Elevated trains.^[2] As part of the same plan to streamline Lake Street service, the Ashland station one block east of the transfer was closed but remained standing.^[2] The Logan Square branch would not begin skip-stop until the opening of the Dearborn Street subway and the closing of the transfer in 1951.^[20]

Plans for Chicago to have a subway system to relieve the severe congestion of, if not replace, its elevated trackage dated back to the early 20th century, but the city lagged in building subways.^[30] Chicago petitioned the Public Works Administration (PWA) for construction funds for a subway on State Street in 1937.^[31] The petition originally included a proposal for two downtown east-west streetcar tunnels.^[32] Harold L. Ickes, the administrator of the PWA and a longtime Chicagoan, vetoed the streetcar tunnel plan and insisted instead on a second subway that would go under Dearborn Street and Milwaukee Avenue, which would provide a more direct route from Logan Square to downtown.^[32] Although this idea engendered considerable local opposition, especially from mayor Edward Joseph Kelly, Ickes's influence in the federal government led to the Dearborn plan being adopted in 1938.^[32] A 1939 plan also introduced the idea of replacing the Metropolitan's main line and Garfield Park branch with a section of rapid transit operating through a proposed superhighway on Congress Street (the eventual I‑290).^[33] These sections of transit would be connected, allowing for the area's rapid transit to be routed through downtown rather than adhere to a trunk-and-branch model.^[34]

The subway's approval did not immediately imply the end of the old Logan Square branch; plans in 1939 included another proposed subway to connect the branch with the Ravenswood branch to the north and through-routing it with the Douglas Park branch to the south into a subway on Ashland Avenue to form a crosstown route.^[35] Damen Tower serving the Humboldt Park branch divergence was rebuilt with the expectation that it also would switch trains between the subway and the elevated, much like the State Street subway connects with the earlier elevated North Side main line that remained standing after its construction,^[36] and as late as 1949 commuters were promised such a setup that would have preserved the old Logan Square trackage.^[37] However, the CTA had no interest in operating either the old Logan Square elevated or the Humboldt Park branch; the new Damen Tower would never be installed with switching equipment, and the Logan Square branch south of Damen would be closed after the Dearborn subway opened.^[36]

 

World War II interrupted the construction of the Dearborn Street subway; although the federal government allowed the continued construction of the State Street subway, it did not do so for the Dearborn Street subway even though it was 82 percent completed by 1942.^[20] After the war ended, work resumed on the Dearborn Street subway and it opened at midnight Sunday, February 25, 1951; at the same time, the Humboldt Park branch was restricted to a shuttle service to and from Damen on the Logan Square branch.^[20] Having been rendered obsolete by the subway, the Lake Street Transfer station was closed and the Lake Street's Ashland station reopened.^[3] The subway was predicted to reduce the travel time between Logan Square and downtown from 28 minutes to 15.^[20] Since construction had not started on the Congress Line, trains in the Dearborn subway stopped at its southern terminus at LaSalle and turned back.^[20] Despite its incomplete state, and complaints from riders no longer given a direct trip to the Near West Side,^[38][39] the new subway had over sixty percent higher ridership than the old Logan Square branch by the end of the year.^[40] The old Logan Square branch trackage south of its entrance to the subway became known as the Paulina Connector, connecting the branch with the rest of the "L" system.^[41]

Construction on the Congress Line began in 1954, leaving the Douglas branch with the issue of how to connect with the Loop in the meantime.^[42] The Paulina Connector south of Washington Boulevard (a block south of Lake Street) was reopened for the purpose,^[42] but the Metropolitan's old tracks north of Washington were replaced in revenue service by a direct connection to the Lake Street's trackage known as Washington Junction, located adjacent to the abandoned station.^[41] This junction contained an automatic interlocking mechanism, where Douglas Park trains carried an electric coil to switch them to the Connector that Lake Street trains lacked.^[43] This connection was used until the Congress Line was completed in 1958, after which the Douglas branch connected directly with it to use the Dearborn Street subway to go downtown, creating the "West-Northwest Route" that was renamed the Blue Line in 1992.^[44][45]

The Paulina Connector – both the original Metropolitan tracks and the newer Washington Junction – remained in non-revenue service. The old northbound track north of Washington Junction was removed in 1957, the southbound track continuing non-revenue operations.^[41] Wooden material from closed stations on the Connector, including Lake Street Transfer, was removed in the late 1950s to mitigate fire hazards, as were the lowest flights of stairs to deter trespassing, but the rest of the station would remain until the mid-to-late 1960s.^[1] The old Metropolitan trackage north of Washington Junction was sparsely used and most of it was demolished in 1964 with the right of way sold off;^[46] the remainder of the Connector reentered revenue service when the Pink Line was formed from it and the Douglas Park branch – by then renamed the Cermak branch – in 2006; the junction of the Pink Line with the modern-day Green Line (the modern service on the Lake Street Elevated) is at Washington Junction by the site of the station.^[47]

Before 1913, the Wood and Lake stations had two wooden side platforms each. The Wood station had two station houses, one on each platform, designed in a "gingerbread" Queen Anne style, similar to the other stations on the route and the surviving station houses at Ashland.^[48] The station houses were heated by potbelly stoves, and while earlier plans had called for their ticket agent's booths to be placed on the sides of the station houses facing the street, they ended up being placed in alcoves adjacent to the platforms.^[48] The construction of the Lake Street Elevated's stations was contracted to Frank L. Underwood of Kansas City and Willard R. Green of New York.^[49] The Metropolitan's Lake station, which continued as its portion of the Lake Street Transfer, also had two wooden side platforms, but a station house located at street level on the north side of Lake Street. The station house, made of red pressed brick and white limestone trim, was designed similarly to other stations on the Logan Square branch, surviving examples of which are at California and Damen, with a corniced and dentiled front bay containing dual doors specifically marked "Entrance" and "Exit" and prolific use of terra cotta. Its wooden platforms had hipped roof tin canopies in the center and decorative cast-iron railings with diamond designs.^[1][50] Unlike elsewhere on the "L", station houses on the Metropolitan had central heating and a basement.^[51]

After the transfer was completed in 1913 the C&OP built new platforms; these platforms projected westward from the Metropolitan, with their eastern halves covered by arched canopies with lattice framing and their western halves open. Auxiliary exits onto Hermitage Avenue were located on the middle of the Lake Street platforms at the western ends of their canopies. On the Metropolitan's end, its platforms and canopies were extended southward to meet the southern Lake Street platform, and a new station house on the south side of Lake Street was constructed sometime before 1917, after which the original station house was used for storage. The final station was double-decked, with the Metropolitan's original two side platforms being augmented by the Lake Street Elevated's lower two side platforms. Access to the station was through stairwells from the station house to the Lake Street platforms, which had additional stairways to connect to the Metropolitan platforms; each Lake Street platform was connected to each Metropolitan platform, leading to four inter-platform stairwells in total. The station house presumably had direct access only to the southern eastbound Lake Street platform, with patrons wishing to access the Lake Street's northern westbound platform having to walk up to the Metropolitan platforms and walk down again.^[1]

Throughout the stations' existence, the Lake Street^[f] and Metropolitan Elevateds^[15] had two tracks each in the vicinity, meaning that the transfer station had four tracks overall. Having had trouble constructing its trackage with two different companies and assembling much of its own infrastructure, the Lake Street Elevated contracted with Underwood and Green to construct its stations and the tracks west of Ashland.^[53] The Metropolitan's tracks were constructed by the West Side Construction Company, a company with the same officers as the Metropolitan itself and the chief engineer of E. W. Elliot, with steel and iron from the Carnegie Steel Company.^[15] Like the rest of the station, the tracks were double-decked in relation with one another.^[1]

As originally opened, the Metropolitan's trains ran every six minutes between 6:00 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., and every ten minutes during the night; the average speed was 16 mph (26 km/h).^[19] Unlike the Lake Street Elevated, all the Metropolitan's motor cars allowed smoking.^[19] The Lake Street Elevated originally operated smoking cars at some times and not at others,^[19] but the C&OP banned all smoking on its trains in 1909.^[54] Smoking was banned by the city across the "L" and in streetcars in response to a 1918 influenza outbreak, a prohibition that has remained in force ever since.^[54]

The fare across the "L" was legally mandated to be a nickel (5 cents, $1.37 in 2021) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This fare continued until temporarily increased by a cent to $0.06 ($1.27 in 2021) in 1917 before stabilizing to a dime (10 cents, $1.35 in 2021) in 1920.^[55] Starting in 1922 fares were usually marketed in packs of three rides for 25 cents, or 8+1⁄3 cents per ride ($1.35 per ride in 2021), but individual fares remained 10 cents each.^[56] At the same time, a weekly pass was introduced, the first in a major American city, for $1.25 ($20.24 in 2021) for rides outside of Evanston and Wilmette.^[56] Fare control was originally by station agents posted at the station 24 hours a day; on the Lake Street, conductors were instead used for off-peak and night hours between 1921 and 1922 and consistently from 1925,^[57] while the Metropolitan used conductors between 1931 and 1937.^[58]

The Lake Street transfer station was served by a streetcar service on Lake Street; this service was consolidated with a streetcar service on State Street down to 63rd Street on September 14, 1924, as part of so-called "Through Route 16", or T.R. 16.^[59] Unlike many streetcar lines in Chicago, T.R. 16 had no owl service, and its last northbound car left 63rd Street at 12:35 a.m.^[60] During the day, streetcar lines in Chicago typically had intervals of between eight and fifteen minutes per car.^[61] After the transfer station was abandoned, streetcar service on Lake Street was cut back from downtown on November 15, 1953, and replaced by buses on May 30, 1954.^[62]

Prior to the construction of the transfer, the Metropolitan's Lake station had a ridership that hovered around 250,000 a year, peaking at 296,116 in 1905.^[63] The Lake Street's Wood station had a similar ridership, but one which peaked at 441,045 in 1905.^[64] Once the transfer was in place, the two lines' contributions to station ridership were roughly equal, with the Lake Street edging out the Metropolitan each year.^[65]

In 1936, the last year Lake Street records are available, the transfer station had 94,688 Lake Street riders and 87,533 Metropolitan riders for a combined ridership of 182,221.^[67] The following year's Metropolitan ridership was 181,909, suggesting that subsequent years' riderships were all recorded as being under the Metropolitan.^[58] The Metropolitan continued to record transfer ridership until 1948; that year, the Lake Street Transfer had 361,934 riders, a substantial 69.48 percent increase from the 213,561 of 1947. Throughout the 1940s, the transfer's ridership ranking within the Northwest branch's six stations varied significantly; in 1940 it was the second-least patronized station after Grand immediately to the north, while in 1948 it had the third-highest ridership after Damen and Chicago.^[68] For the "L" overall, in 1948 it was the 122nd-most ridden of 223 stations at the beginning of the year where ridership was recorded; in 1947 it had been the 174th-most ridden of 222 such stations.^[g][70]

• "The Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad of Chicago". The Street Railway Review. 5: 263–274. January 15, 1895.
• Borzo, Greg (2007). The Chicago "L". Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia. ISBN 978-0-7385-5100-5 – via Google Books.
• Department of Subways and Traction (1939). A Comprehensive Plan for the Extension of the Subway System of the City of Chicago. Chicago: City of Chicago – via Internet Archive.
• Chicago Transit Authority (1951). Seventh Annual Report of Chicago Transit Board for the Fiscal Year ended December 31, 1951 – via Internet Archive.
• Chicago Transit Board (1954). Tenth Annual Report for the Fiscal Year ended December 31, 1954 – via Internet Archive.
• Public Information Department (1967). Congress Rapid Transit. Chicago: Chicago Transit Authority – via Internet Archive.
• CTA Rail Entrance, Annual Traffic, 1900–1979 (Report). Chicago: Chicago Transit Authority. October 1, 1979.
• Lind, Alan R. (1974). Chicago Surface Lines: An Illustrated History. Park Forest, Illinois: Transport History Press.
• Moffat, Bruce G. (1995). The "L": The Development of Chicago's Rapid Transit System, 1888–1932. Chicago: Central Electric Railfans' Association. ISBN 0-915348-30-6.