Wilson Yard, 1961

My guess is that this picture was taken from a top floor in the Uptown Bank Building, looking south toward Wilson Yard. You can spot the Broadway Building in the foreground, the distinctive tower of St. Mary's Church at the top of the photo, and the McJunkin Building just below that. It is one of the many fabulous photos that appear in The Chicago "L" by Greg Borzo.

Caption reads: "In 1908, the 'L' extended service to Howard and beyond to Evanston at ground level. In 1914-1922, it elevated the track from Wilson to Howard on an embankment rather than a steel structure. This was done to support the weight of freight cars that the 'L' handled from 1920 to 1973 between Church Street in Evanston and Irving Park Road in Chicago. A huge yard was built at Wilson in 1900. Much later, a massive four-track repair and maintennce building, seen in the center background of the view south in 1961, was added. A continuous four-track main line had just been completed here, replacing a two-track bottleneck."

Greg Borzo is a co-author of The Windies' City: Chicago's Historical Hidden Treasures.

My birthday is coming up on Thursday (hint-hint), and this would make a terrific addition to my book collection. :-)

"This is a Red Line Train to Howard..."

Can anyone recognize exactly which north side L stop is in this vintage postcard? (It's not a quiz; I'm not entirely sure myself.)

I work from home, so riding the L to get somewhere in the City is always a bit of a novelty for me. As I write this, I can hear the recorded voice from the platform of the Argyle Stop. "Doors closing. This is a Red Line train to Howard." I don't really live that close to the tracks, but every once in a while there is a quiet moment with no other traffic or people chatting on the street, and I can hear the recordings.

It wasn't until 1993 that the Howard branch of the elevated was combined with the Dan Ryan branch via the State Street Subway to create the "Red Line" we all know and love. That was the year the CTA adopted color-coded names for all of its L routes.

The old Howard Line, also known as the North Side Main line, was a series of sections originally built by the Northwestern Elevated Railroad Company. It stretched from Howard Street at the Border of Evanston all the way to the Loop. To learn more about the full history, visit Chicago-l.org This is a terrific site on the history of Chicago's train transportation. There is also a new book by Greg Borzo, published this past summer, called The Chicago "L" that has a ton of great photographs.

Image courtesy John Chuckman.

Arthur Gerber Train Stations: Uptown at Wilson and Broadway

One of the five new banners flying over Uptown this fall features the Uptown Station as conceived and designed by architect Arthur Gerber. Surfing tonight when I should have otherwise been working on a client project, I came across this Web site that discusses other stations designed by Gerber: Arthur U. Gerber, Chicago's Transit Architect.

What I wasn't aware of is that Gerber was also the architect of the McJunkin Building across the street. Somewhere around here I have a photo of what that looked like back in the day; it's a nighttime image, all lit up with ornamental lights. That must have been a sight! I'll try to dig it up sometime soon.