January 21, 1900 – With the impending demolition
of the Rock Island railroad station at Van Buren Street and Pacific Avenue, the
Chicago Daily Tribune provides a look
at the oldest train station in the city, a place that pre-dates the Chicago
fire of 1871. The Rock Island was the
second railroad to enter the city, following the Chicago and Galena closely,
and its first station was an “old whitewashed barn” in the same location as the
station scheduled for destruction. On
October 7, 1871 as the great fire began to consume the city, the president of
the Rock Island, stayed at the station until the end, locking all of the
railroad’s papers in the station’s big vault.
Although the building was gutted, the papers survived intact. The Rock Island’s Superintendent of Telegraph,
who had been with the railroad since 1849, reminisces in the article about the
old days of railroading in the city, “When we first ran in here we used an old
barn for a depot … across the street, where the Rialto and Board of Trade
Buildings now are, was vacant ground.
Our company had a track run across Van Buren street, and we switched our
cars half-way down to Jackson boulevard … at that time the Stock-Yards were
located at Michigan avenue and Twenty-second street, and all our stock trains
were switched over there.” Times changed,
though, and it was no longer practical, from a logistical or a financial point
of view, to keep a station in the heart of the Loop. The article concludes with this thought,
“Chicago is so big now, they say, that there is nothing particular to be gained
by having terminals in the congested down-town districts. In fact, many of the old-time railroad agents
are of the opinion that union stations farther out would now be better for the
city and good for the public.”
Also on this date from an earlier blog entry . . .
January 21, 1963 -- Both the inbound and outbound Chicago, North Shore and Milwaukee trains are delayed as they begin their last runs. Engineer William Livings, with 50 people onboard, operated the final train into Roosevelt Station on the electric line that began as a Milwaukee street railroad in 1891. 170 people rode on the six cars of the last train north, the majority of them sailors returning to the Great Lakes Naval base. The line had operated at a deficit for over half of its existence, but the combination of new superhighways and the increase in commuting by car spelled the end for the little electric line. For more on the railroad visit http://www.connectingthewindycity.com/…/chicago-look-back-a…
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