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Ch Icago's Fi Nest Transportation the Illinois Central Electric

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Ch Icago's Fi Nest Transportation the Illinois Central Electric Published by the Hyde Park H istorical Society Ch icago's Fi nest Transportation Th e Illi nois Centra l Electric Chicago lake front and ICRR trac ks, fro m Ran dolph Street looking south in the ea rly 1860s. This article is the first ofa series about the history ofthe coachhouses, townhouses, and six-flats, the railroad is lILinois Certtral Railroad. an integral and evocative part of neighborhood li fe . This great piece of transportation infras tructure has By John G. Allen and Roy G. Benedict no parallel elsewhere in Chicagoland. It has few peers in North America, or indeed in the world. Even as he South Side's great electric railroad celebrates its Metra Electric ce lebrates its 80th anniversary in 2006, Teightieth anniversary in 2006. Metra Electric~r it remains, in its design and physical p lant, at the as many long-time residents still think of it, the pinnacle of achievement in the nation's rai lroad capital. Illi nois Central- is a solid, imposing presence in Public transportation on Chicago's South Side and Hyde Park and the other South Side neighborhoods it south suburbs rook a g reat stri de fo rward in 1926 traverses. With its raised embankment and its latticed when the Illinois Central Railroad (IC) completed steel towers, it has a solid, almost timeless feel ro it. electrification of its commuter service. To this day, th~ Like the Gothic build ings of the University of Chicago physical plant of what is now Metra Electric reflects the or Hyde Park's tree-lined streets with their mansions, vision of an age when the railroads were confident > 8 ~.~ 2 ~!~ ""'8 of themselves and the future. Much of that commuter business altogether, but as Cornell was optimism is still palpable in the confidence with helping to pay the commuter deficit, the railroad felt which the railroad strides authoritatively across optimistic enough about the servi ce's prospects to Chicago's Sourh Side. But the Illinois Central Electric extend service from Hyde Park to Woodlawn (i .e., story starts seven decades before the start of electric from 51st St. - tOday's East H yde Park Boulevard - to service, when Chicago was eagerly embracing the 63rd St.) in 1858. At some point between 1862 and emerging technology of railroading as it outgrew its 1869, the IC extended service half a mile further to earlier role as a frontier outpost. Oak Woods Cemetery at 67th St. In subsequent decades, the IC would lead Chicago's Paul Co rn ell and th e Route of the Il linois Ce ntral railroads in the use of specialized cars and locomotives How did this great electric railroad come to be, and for its suburban service. Ini tially, however, the railroad what makes it special even to this day? The Ie's used cars and engines from its regular fleet. Although electrification came about largely because the railroad the IC would eventually become a major consumer of ran along the south lakefront between the Loop and coal from southern Illinois, its first locomotives Hyde Park. When the Ie's route was being planned in burned wood, and refueled at a "wood pile" near where the early 1850s, the railroad sought to reach the 57th St. is today. Chicago River on a more westerly alignment near Halsted St., which would have bypassed Hyde Park The Fi re and the Fair altogether. But the City of Chicago insisted on a It tOok the 1871 Chicago Fire to turn the IC into an lakefront alignment. In an age long before Grant Park, important part of the Chicago transportation picture. Burnham Park, and Lake Shore Drive turned the south Many of those displaced by the fire relocated to the lakefront into a well-manicured landscape, the ci ty's South Side, which was largely untouched by the fire . logic was that a lakefront route would force the railroad In 1871, short!y before the fire, the IC extended to protect the Loop and the south lakefront from service a short distance to Parkside (at 70th St. and storm s and eros ion to safeguard its own investment. Kimbark Ave.). In 1872, after the fire , the IC took the T his forced the railroad to deal with developer Paul bold step of running commuter trains all the way to Cornell , owner of tOday's Hyde Park. Cornell insisted Riverdale, just beyond the large area of Hyde Park that the railroad run what was then called suburban township-which beca~e part of the ci ty in 1889. service to H yde Park "in due course" (althoug h the In 1873 the IC inaugurated Sun day service, both for South Siders who still attended church services 'l'ib<="' ; <"~""""" "'><j. ¥:~~. X:oCk'><-)'>C>Cx.'>c. ""~. "":;:x;coo6<\.,~ )( . :rL~ is ~~:N"#.A RA:rL~~A~' ' ; ' ~~.. ':{ downtown, and for excursionists traveling to Oak ~ ~~ Pa." ,\.'an;il /: ~ ' a . - Wood~ 'it.rainj,x Woods Cemetery (Americans in the 19th century had r}\TXl!oifE!~r.rk. LE.. ~ a closer relationship with death and the deceased than ~ . TO . ~ ~:~(.!. ._E:'F 'C '!:: . A ~ 2<1, 1 S O. ' . ~ Q we do today). The South Chicago and Blue Island ~ . C,OJt~ C SOUTH· :il D~lJ~"tx,ee~~sundrl ! cOI~c l;NORT ~ X branches opened for service in 1883 and 1892, R.Y·AI. .'1;11, r ..i,. r ,)/. ",>I . .J.~(I"~. ·1 .drriVf· \ ).. ...... ".". ':'J!' 1' ." l' .\i. ~ X Gill *".15 3 .00 12.10. ,G 2C1 /.. Cflllr ni Dcpo~. · . '7.45 0 45 1. r Ii 1;; 7.3;' Y respectively. On the main line, further extensions ~ O. .. ... 8.0S' 12'.15 ,,62';, .. ; . I'llb sl,reet... \ 7 .81 . .... 1..,2 h.OT 7.21 X '6.2 ' 420 3 0 1.2 : 21\ .0 ,80 ...... I''£ldon ... 7 3-~ ~ .05 1. ~{ f'.D'; 7.2;'. X brought IC commuter service to Harvey in 1890, S:'ll '''' :; B·:t~ W.. 21 6.~1 1.....I~lli l str~e t ... ~'t.33 .... t.t~, ~ . l\n.7 ~ ~ 0 .23 " ~~ 3.13 12,21 G.a·) :.... 22<1 '-~lreeL... 7 .31 9.02 1.2~ ' ~,r>s 1 , ~t ''; Flossmoor in 1900, and Matteson in 1912. There were , 0.20 ".; . ', ~ . 1f> ,1~.2.~ ...·35 ' ., .. Cur \I'\l r ks .• . 7 .31l " 1 .2~ .4.~(; 7.211 X !6.~2 t..·..•~ ' , ;.2~ 12 SII G,40 1... .. Ji· ul r \'~e~ •. .. 1 ~;'; .... 1.~0 ,U ,!t, 7 ."-, ~ further south suburban extensions to Ri chton (now It . ~.3~ 4.&1 , 3.:~~' 12.~2 .. 421 ...; .() Uk lnprt '.... 7 .n S',41 I.ISI,,4[,o i.\2 ' ~ Richton Park) in 1946 and Park Forest South (now ~:~.Hl '. 1l.2' I 12 .~~ (, ..44 .. I.tf" r m ~l:b ool . 7.2<1 .... 1.1? : L4 ~ ;. \1\ I ~ 6'1,1 0 11 3,. }t,.~I ' 1 1 2 36 O.4r....... KenwO<ip...... 7.17. 8.4~ I.:}.o' 4.• , 10, X University Park) in 1979. iG.44 1',30 ~.R~, '12.4'i ~~~ I .... lIyd"..' O. .. .. 7.1~ S,':!, l~ 44~ 1.O.~ X K 6.40,· ,.,.'. 8.);1: ]1,'\2 U .,2 1..... \VIJO~~II~~...II'l J~ ., .. ,1J. 08 ~.4. 1.(I~ The IC provided impressive brick and stone stations ll:bO' .'4.43' 3 40't It.'\,1 r. :,:, !.. Wood },nw . j' .111 S"!31~ ."o 4 ~') 7 .00 G.52 ';'~" s .4b 1,125°1 j uOj'I .... unk ",p<lll., ',. I ,00 " '1'\12.1>:) 4::l'.! G:;; and ornate ones with Carpenter Gothic architecture ~S=' AI ' 7'.,,\ r, ~ " P. N, A .M. v!1·ri"•. ·rr · 'Xea'v~.[ ' " . .,Ai . l' AI r ... r ... : ~ , ... ' . .~\.' '. for its commuters. Adler and Sullivan designed a ~\ . , . M..... t.t?~ l f " .:11 8Up~r1i1te .ndent ' ' . lepot at Oakland (39th St.) with arches comparable to :~.,., ·:"":XY.:K;X\;;"';X-,.to:,,,,><-X <><XX:X:'_'X:X:>o~" . x><x><X'x",::x:x:~?> :\,. · y.~ those found at Kenilworth on the Chicago & North agreement did not specify a date), and buy lots in the Western or Stone Ave. on the Chicago, Burli ngton & community in order to have a stake in its success. The Quincy. There was a large brick depot with a mansard IC reached Chicago in 1854, and inaugurated a four­ roof at South Park station (57th St.), an engraving of round-trip suburban schedule on July 21,1856, which appeared on the cover of the first issue of Hyde making it the first commuter service west of Park History in 1980. Wooden depots, many with Philadelphia. In the wake of the Panic of 1857, the Carpenter Gothic trim, served commuters at other railroad showed that it, tOO, could drive a hard locations, particularly along the South Chicago bargain, and insisted that Cornell reimburse the branch. With the exceptions of H omewood and railroad for part of its losses from the service. Flossmoor, the railroad demol ished all of these station The IC was co nsi dering getting out of the buildings in preparation for electrification. ~.~ S II III III e 2 00 Ii J ~!~ H ad it not been for the World 's Columbian burning steam locomotives. Most, although by no Exposition of 1893, the IC might well have remained a means all of these were commuter trains. The smoke commuter railroad much like the Burlington, (he Rock from these trains led civic groups and the city to press Island, the Chicago & North Western, or the the IC to electrify its operations. In 1919 the IC Milwaukee Road. But the World's Fair propelled the entered into a set of agreements, collectively known as Illinois Central to the fotefront of Chicago's commuter the Lake Front Ordinance, wi th the City and the railroads.
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