Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Chicago, IL Depot: C&NW 1911 Chicago Passenger Terminal (CPT)

(David Daruszka blog, a summary of all the stations; Classic Streamliners, concentrates on the 1911 and 1984 stations; Chicagology, the first station and early maps (source); Forgotten Chicago, the first part has photos of the older stations; Eight photos of the 1911 station by Roger Puta; Facebook, location of first station; Satellite)

See Chicago Passenger Stations for an overview of all the major stations that were in Chicago and the location of this station.

CPT = Chicago Passenger Terminal

The predecessor stations: Kinzie Street and Wells Street Stations
These notes were getting long so here are some more photos of the station.
IRM Strahorn Library posted
The Harold Kroeger collection at the Illinois Railway Museum’s Strahorn Library includes this view of what might be Chicago’s least-photographed train station: the Northwestern aka the Ogilvie Transportation Center.  The date the photograph was taken wasn’t recorded but the slide has a processing date of May, 1981 stamped into it so we know the photo is that old or maybe a little older.
The 1911 Renaissance Revival building was designed by Frost and Granger, also the architects for the 1903 LaSalle Street Station.  In 1984, the head house was razed and replaced with the glass-and-steel Citicorp Center, which was completed three years later in 1987. In 1991 Metra purchased the train shed from Chicago and North Western and began an extensive program of reconstruction.  The station was renamed the Ogilvie Transportation Center in 1997, two years after the C&NW merged into the Union Pacific Railroad. The station was named for Richard B. Ogilvie, an Illinois Governor who had been instrumental in the creation of the Regional Transportation Authority, parent body of Metra.  The sixteen-track station continues in daily service to Chicago commuters.
The Strahorn Library houses thousands of books, tens of thousands of periodicals and more than a hundred thousand photographs, all centering on the subject of trains and railroading and all held to support research and scholarship into the railroad history of the United States.  It is at 118 E. Washington Street in Marengo, Illinois, is normally open from 10AM to 2:30PM on Wednesdays and visitors are welcome.  For those unable to visit, we can provide access to our collections via telephone (815-568-1060), e-mail (strahorn@irm.org), or online catalog (librarycat.org/lib/IRMStrahornLibrary).
All materials are provided only for non-commercial purposes according to the “fair use” provision of U.S. Copyright Law which permits use of copyrighted material for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research.
[Source: Dillon 1751, Strahorn Library, Illinois Railway Museum.  Posted by Jan Young]
IRM Strahorn Library shared

David Daruszka posted
C&NW Madison Street Terminal.
Ralcon Wagner: Photo made sometime before 1964 - the Union Station's north train sheds are still visible at bottom.

David Wilson posted
USA RAILWAY TERMINUS - CHICAGO AND NORTH WESTERN RAILWAY PASSENGER TERMINAL 1927 - DOWNTOWN CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - BUILT 1911 - (NOW THE RICHARD B. OGILVIE TRANSPORTATION CENTER - BUILT CIRCA 1980's).
Andrew Roth shared
David Daruszka shared
Robert Bertram: Torn down at a time when we should have known better.

Patrick McNamara commented on the post and share
 
Original Chicago posted
Northwestern Train Station, On Madison Street in Chicago. year Is 1912. Looks a lot different but there is still a Station in the same location. Now called Ogilvie transportation center.

Michael North posted
Chicago area railroad history
Jon Roma: View looks west [actually, east; see below] toward Clinton St., tracks are out of view to the right. By the time I traveled by train to Chicago for the first time as a youngster – of course riding with my parents on the upper level – the stairway to Madison St. had been covered over, and was the site of the ticket office.
The demolition of this station in 1984 is a loss almost as significant as the demolition of Chicago's Grand Central (on Harrison at Wells) in 1971.
North Western Station was the last opportunity for Chicago to preserve in its entirety any of Chicago's downtown termini from the golden age of railroading. Central (IC) was demolished in 1974, the train shed at Dearborn was demolished though the station building itself has been preserved, albeit for non-rail use. Union Station's concourse was demolished in 1969, La Salle was replaced (1981) with a sorry excuse for a downtown terminal, and I already mentioned the fate of Grand Central.
But, the North Western wanted to sell the valuable air rights for redevelopment, and the city wanted to cash in on the tax revenue that the development would bring. Preservation efforts came to naught. Like Grand Central before it, this structure was sacrificed to the gods of money.
Lawrence Smith: great childhood memories going downtown on the NW line - best memory is watching the bartenders serve the outgoing commuters at end of day as they raced to their trains and picked up their paper cups of goodies pre-stacked 2-3 high by the bartenders for them - paid up monthly.
David Daruszka: The ticket offices were on the right. The grand staircase was covered over and was the location of a restaurant/coffee shop. The lower level became division offices. I led the preservation group that tried to save the station. The fix was in though and our appearance before the Landmarks Commission was meaningless.
Jon Roma: David Daruszka, am I facing the wrong direction? I'm trying to remember the location of the restaurant relative to the latter day ticket offices?
David Daruska replied to Jon's question
The postcard view is facing east. This is the view facing west.
[Clinton was on the west side and Madison was on the south side.]
Comments on David's reply

A different exposure of the main staircase.
Historic Chicago posted
Chicago and Northwestern Station (1910)

Bill Molony posted
This is a post card view of Northwestern Depot in Chicago - circa 1930.

Mike Breski posted
https://chicagology.com/skyscrapers/skyscrapers055/

Bruce Moffat posted
The C&NW's Chicago Passenger Terminal (the railroad's official name for what the public called "North Western Station). Taken in 1984 not long before it would bite the dust.
Bruce Moffat The owners won't even let Metra put its name anywhere on the exterior, no matter how subdued. Nothing on the outside tells you that there is a train station inside.

Jeff Nichols posted four photos with the comment: "Chicago & Northwestern Railway Station under construction, 1909-1910. Chicago Daily News Photographs, Chicago History Museum."

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Jeff Nichols posted
Chicago and North Western Terminal, c. 1915. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Jeff Nichols posted
Chicago and North Western Terminal, c. 1915. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin


Uraiwan Dutkiewicz -> Forgotten Chicago
Uraiwan's comment:
The Chicago & North Western railroad station with the Mead Cycle Company, right across the street in Chicago between 1909 and 1920. — (Library of Congress)
A comment indicates the date would be 1911 or after the C&NW Madison Street Station opened for the public. This view is looking North along Canal Street. Mead is on the site of the future Daily News building.

Ironically, the powerhouse, and its smokestack, has been preserved. This posting has a lot of information, photos, and even a painting. Since I'm sure the painting is copyrighted, you will have to follow the link. Fortunately, the painting is at the top. Hugh Dismuke's posting has a picture that includes a previous depot.

Mark Reiner posted
The demolition of the Chicago and Northwestern station on Madison St. in 1984 {chicagopast.com}
Bill Molony posted
Post Card picture of the new Chicago & North Western Railway terminal in Chicago - 1910.

Mike Tuggle posted
Chicago & North Western station in 1948.
Trent Blasco posted
An impressive mid-century photo of Northwestern Station in Chicago with a larger than life sign. At this point in time the station was the eastern terminus for the long distance streamliners of the Chicago & Nortwestern as well as the Union Pacific. Today the original headhouse is gone and the station restyled as the commuter only Ogilvie Transportation Center.
John A. Fostik, MBA
A better preserved copy of this 1950-55 image.
Jeff Lewis posted
A postcard of Chicago & North Western Passenger Terminal at Madison and Canal Streets. Date unknown, though it would be prior to 1955. It's unfortunate that components of the sign were scrapped long ago, and even more unfortunate that what likely amounted to graft spelled the doom for the station itself when the city council inexplicably denied historic landmark status to the station so the Ogilvie tower could be built in its place.
Whenever I see old photos it never ceases to amaze me how filthy buildings became back in that era. That beautiful old station was gleaming white stone when built.

BHRS posted

A wider angle view of the climax depot is in the background of a Madison Street Bridge photo.

Keith King posted
Chicago & Northwestern station.
My photo, but I have no additional information to date the photo other than where I wrote on the envelope "early 1984."
I believe this is the west side of the building, looking east on Madison.Keith King - Found this YouTube video of the building/station.
It's rather long. The beginning has exterior views from different angles, (limited) interior views are thrown in.
Scenes from the roof appear just short of 1:19:45.
David Daruszka comment in Patrick McNamara's posting
From a different posting:  Charles Sumner Frost's Madison St. Chicago and Northwestern Station,
https://www.loc.gov/item/2007663562/

C&NW Historical Society posted
This Christmas Eve 1951 Chicago and North Western company publicity photo shows the Chicago terminal "throat" with kerosene heaters being used to keep the switches thawed. The heaters are now natural gas fed.

Greg Kozlick posted
The complicated trackwork at Ogilvie Transportation Center, formerly North Western Station, in Chicago. Metra 166 is in the fuel pocket while an outbound train passes under the signal bridge and around the bend. January 7, 2023.
Phil Zocco: How does one design that let alone build it??!!
Mike Howard: Phil Zocco you should see the locking bed on the lever machine in the tower . Took me a whole shift to oil it .


Mark Llanuza posted
Were at CNW station 1981Cruz Martinez Crandall cab!!!Dennis Mize 5031B! I spent 2 hours on the late night 12:40AM west line train, broke down east of Oak Park, sitting in the darkness with other passengers. Finally commuter control got the inbound equipment run from Geneva into CPT and ran the engine out lite to get us. Made it out to Villa Park after 4:00 AM. Hurried off the train to see the head end power and found the crippled 5031-B and the rescue F7A on the head end. It is an ex KCS E3 rebuild, iirc.
Patrick McNamara posted
Announcement from the June 3, 1911 editions of the Chicago Tribune announcing the opening of Chicago's newest downtown Terminal............
Patrick McNamara https://www.facebook.com/groups/CNWRR/permalink/10153735415497775/
Mark Llanuza posted
James Clausen I notice that in a lot of the 1960s/70s photos of the CNW commuter equipment, the Es and Fs have a pretty grimy look. Was this just infrequent washing or 30-40 year old equipment showing its age?
Dennis Mize During the winter, there was a reduction in cleaning and grime would build up. During the Spring, Summer and Fall, the units were washed and kept cleaner.

Gaza Duna commented on a post
Chicago & North Western station 1946

Robert Daly posted
B&O E unit, probably power on the Capitol, sticks its nose out of the trainshed at North Western Station, February 14 1971.
Dennis DeBruler I'm glad you pointed out the B&O engine, I would have missed it. This is the first photo I remember seeing that caught the window between the closure of Grand Central Station in 1969 and the creation of Amtrak just a few months later (Mqy 1, 1971).

Mark Llanuza posted two pictures "CNW station 1982 lower level."
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Rob Costello posted
A view to the north from the 33rd floor at 400 [comments corrected to 500] W Madison (I don't want to call the building by the politician's name)
I first worked at that address wearing a monkey suit in 1976. Anyone remember buying pins at Farber's?
[The unmentionable was Ogilvie.]
Rick De Karske commented on the above posting
From my daughter's dorm room at Columbia College... August 2014
Mark Llanuza posted
Were on the second floor of the CNW station getting a great view from above in 1980
Erick Schroeder Great memories there. My dad would bring me for the day and we would go to lunch and walk around then go down to the basement to trains men room to relax and watch a little tv. Then go up to the snack store and get a dozen pretzel rods and they put it in a black and white print paper bag. Then we would sit on the huge benches and just try to take in the incredible features of the ceiling and building. And who could forget how one little noise could echo forever and be amplified!
Lance Erickson When the CPT the Chicago Passenger terminal just opened. They charged a dollar for a tour of the station.
Evan Stair shared Mark Llanuza Flickr Photo

CNW station 16 tracks


This classic station with the chandeliers hanging above. This is where you would enter gates go to 16 tracks.There is a information center and four bars for a beer ride home

David Daruszka commented on Evan's share
The area was known as the Concourse. It was a circulation area between the waiting room and the train shed. It could also be accessed by stairways on the Canal and Clinton Street sides of the station. This allowed commuters to bypass the main waiting room.
Lance Erickson Except this was for long distance trains. The commuter station was down the platform and under the tracks and was much smaller. It's still there today too. High revenue, long distance, high performance, full service trains. Until the mail was removed to trucks. Mail and express paid the bills on fast overnight flyers. With first class sleeping cars that passengers paid extra to ride. Loss of mail revenue was something the railroads could not make up for.

Jeff Nichols posted
Lobby stairs to the waiting room, Chicago & North Western Passenger Terminal. Catalogued 1910-1920, but I assume that this Detroit Publishing image was taken in 1911 when the station was new. Source: LOC

Jeff Nichols posted two photos with the comment: "Alabaster lamps, Chicago & North Western Passenger Terminal.   Catalogued 1900-1915.   I would imagine that this is probably from the new terminal, part of a series of photos taken by Detroit Publishing around 1912.  LOC" 
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Shorpy
Circa 1911-1915. "Chicago train sheds, Chicago & North Western Railway." Barely discernible in the foreground and along the right of this time exposure: dozens of disembodied legs, faintly indicating the presence of one or more people in motion. Also note the baggage-handling equipment, and the cart on its elevator. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company.

William A. Shaffer posted some of his pictures of the interior, circa 1970s.

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William A. Shaffer posted
Northwestern Station - Chicago, IL (Circa 1970s)
(Photo by William A. Shaffer)

William A. Shaffer posted
North Western Station
Chicago, IL
(Photo by William A. Shaffer)
I was only in North Western Station a couple of times during the entire time I worked out of Chicago. On this particular instance, I made a trip to photograph the building before it was razed for the new "Ogilvie Transportation Center".

Chet Lunsford comment on his posting
A photo displaying the Merchandise Mart's utilization of the older Northwest rail yard.
Glen Miller posted a brighter version of Trent's picture above
Chicago's Northwestern Station in 1955.
Dave Nytko Its always facinated me how exhaust from trains and elements discolored the building got over the years. The station was actually much lighter but over the years the locomotives exhaust and guessing air quality (smog) turned it so dark
This photo was already in the Madison Street Bridge posting, so I thought I'd use this copy here since one rarely sees a full view of the east side of the station.

C&NWHS posted
This is a fabulous photo of Chicago's Madison Street center turn bridge being replaced by a trunion bascule bridge. The new bridge in this 1922 photo is the one which thousands of commuters use to get to their Metra trains (once C&NW) out of the Ogilvie Transportation Center (once the C&NW's Madison Street Terminal) seen behind the raised span. What was once the CHICAGO DAILY NEWS building will be built in the open area to the right of the raised span. That building still survives. No photographer data is found on the reverse of the photo held at the archives of the C&NW Historical Society.
A different cropping and exposure:
Chicago & North Western Historical Society posted
That is the old C&NW Madison Street terminal building seen behind the west leaf of the bascule bridge being built on Madison Street to replace the old turn bridge. The terminal building is gone but many thousands of commuters storm across the "new bridge" every working day. The old "Daily News" building sits on the empty lot to the north of the bridge.
Chris Mahaffey Tremendous photo. Look how dirty (and quickly) the new Terminal got in those days. I walked across that bridge thousands of times when I worked in Civic Opera Building.
Ken Butt commented on a posting
Later view ...

Jack Steen comments on a posting
Exterior gets a cleaning - 1957

After they finished cleaning it.
William Shapotkin posted
Gone but not forgotten...Known by a number of names, "Madison St Station," "Chicago Passenger Terminal" or the more common "NorthWestern Station," this was where you caught your "Scoot" (C&NW nickname for a suburban train) home in the evening or began your transcontinental rail journey. Located at 500 W Madison St in Chicago, this "Temple of Transportation" stood from 1911 until demolishment in 1984.
This undated view (believed from 1959 due to the negative number -- see below), looks N/W across the intersection of Madison/Canal St is an official C&NW Company photo (negative number 59-21 G).
William Shapotkin Collection. (Shapotkin 980)

Chicago & North Western Historical Society posted
Willam A. Shaffer posted
Gates at Northwestern Station (April, 1984)
(Photo by William A. Shaffer)
Willam A. Shaffer posted
Interior of Northwestern Station - Chicago, IL (April, 1984) #3
(Photo by William A. Shaffer)
David Daruszka commented on the above posting
Marc Riener posted
Let's visit the Chicago and Northwestern Station the year it opened in 1911.
Paul Jevert shared
Northwestern Station 1901

Willam A. Shaffer posted
Interior of Northwestern Station - Chicago, IL (April, 1984) #2
(Photo by William A. Shaffer)

William A. Shaffer posted two photos with the comment: "Here are a couple photos I shot of Northwestern Station in Chicago. (All Photos by William A. Shaffer)"

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C&NWHS posted
This photo was taken from the C&NW company magazine of August 1911 just after the new Madison Street Chicago Passenger Terminal opened. It shows the ""Emigrant's Quarters" in the basement of the building (now destroyed). The C&NW was very active in enticing Europeans (especially from the north) to come to the US and settle in C&NW served areas such as Nebraska, South Dakota and southern Minnesota. Even though the railroad charged very low prices for tickets, the road made good money servicing such people along the line.
Joseph Obrien postred
Now that's a train shed. Taken from the Escalon on Des.Plaines Ave.
David Daruszka commented on the above posting
Patrick McNamara commented on a posting by David Daruszka
...view from the Daily News Building - c 1950

Lou Gerard posted
Depot switcher 4288 does switching chores at CPT in April 1981.

David Daruszka commented on a posting by David Daruszka
Its interior was something to behold before the North Western hacked it up. It was one of Chicago's great interior spaces. A temple of transportation.

Historic Chicago posted
Chicago Station of the Chicago and North Western Railway. (1955)
Steve Mazur: Demolished in 1984.

Mike Breski shared

David Daruszka commented on Mike's share
Before it was "remodeled".

Denny Quartieri posted
Ladies and Gentlemen: Chicago & North Western Train Station. 1911.
Tom J. Cassidy shared
Dennis DeBruler commented on Denny's posting
They have installed doors at the track entrance. (20161021 6587)
Dennis DeBruler commented on Denny's posting
Getting to a gate is not near the rat maze that they turned the Union Station into.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Denny's posting
 It is now just another pile of glass.
David caught a comparable view:
David Daruszka commented on a posting
What they replaced it with.
Robert Daly posted three photos with the comment: "More photos to depress y'all--demolition of the North Western Station headhouse, October 1984."

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Michael Morris posted three photos.
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Jim Arvites posted
View of a Chicago streetcar passing the new C&NW downtown Chicago passenger depot circa 1910's. Picture is looking northwest
at corner of Madison and Canal.
(Chicagology)
Kristopher Isaac Barrington posted
Chicago Passenger Terminal
Thomas Leaton Chicago terminus of the former Chicago and North Western, now the UP. The building later was replaced by the Ogilvie Transportation Center, a mixed use high rise. The image shows the entrance to the right, facing Madison street.
[One advantage of a vacant lot is that it lets you get photos of big buildings.]

Bruice Moffat posted
CPT (Chicago Passenger Terminal as the C&NW called it) in 1984. Looks a bit different now.
Jon Roma Union Pacific's trains, but not Union Pacific's rails served Chicago. Their streamliners operated on C&NW rails with C&NW crews, so technically they were C&NW trains east of Council Bluffs, Iowa.
The "City of San Francisco" was joint Southern Pacific-Union Pacific-Chicago & North Western.
Therefore I feel that the original writer is correct that North Western Station (known as "Chicago Passenger Terminal" to C&NW employees) was served by one railroad.
With that said, trains of the Baltimore & Ohio and Chesapeake & Ohio used the station between 1969 and 1971. This reflects the period between the closing of their original station (Grand Central Station at Harrison and Wells in 1969 and the discontinuance of passenger service on the B&O/C&O lines to Chicago with the coming of Amtrak in 1971.
Brandon McShane Ethan Rauch Up bought C&NW in April 1995.
Brandon McShane David Hahn Yes, B&O and C&O operated from North Western Station from November 1969 through May 1, 1971.

David Daruszka updated
David Daruszka commented on his post

Tabitha Mira posted
Union Station Chicago 1948 [Actually, it is the Chicago Passenger Terminal, not Union Station.]
Photo from Andreas Feininger
Paul Webb shared

The skylights have been removed from the platform roofs, otherwise the tracks haven't changed much.

Shad Steve Bargo posted four photos with the comment: "Couple shots from OTC when I went to the autoshow Sunday."
Dennis DeBruler I had to think twice about "OTC" before I realized you meant the Olgivie Transportation Center. It is nice seeing another example of the track switches being so complex that they don't bother to put hoods over the natural gas burners.
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Dennis DeBruler That brown building on the right must be Lake Street Tower, https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../c-lake-tower...
William Shapotkin posted
Recently posted a photo of a C&O psgr trn having arrived at North Western station in Chicago. The B&O/C&O operated out of that facility until May 1, 1971 with the coming of Amtrak. There was a question as to when they began operating out of that facility. It had long been my understanding that the first B&O/C&O trains arrived there on November 1, 1969...well, that date was off by a tad over a week.
Here we see the first arrival, W/B B&O psgr trn #5, the CAPITAL LIMITED, having arrived North Western Station on November 9, 1969 -- eight days later than the moving date I had long understood. Bill Howes photo.
Charles Berthold the photo looks like b&w partly colorized.

Michael Milner posted two photos with the comment: "A couple of clippings from 'Railway and Locomotive Engineering, November, 1912' article."
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Remi Vales Was the L raised higher at some point in this area? There's no way a bi-level coach could fit there.
Although it could just be the angle.

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David Daruszka commented on Michael's post
Somewhat later.

Christopher N. Kaufman commented on his post. The comment on the post is: "A very interesting article I found in the 1911 Journal of the Western Society of Engineers, p. 1062 on the operation of the power plant for the Chicago & Northwestern RR terminal on Canal St. Very efficiently designed; it uses coal to power steam pumps to heat the terminal and reuses the exhaust steam. It has dynamos that drive air compressors to power rail switches. It takes AC current from Edison main and converts it to DC for lighting the passenger terminal."
Google eBook

Dennis DeBruler commented on Christopher's comment
This elevator steam engine caught my eye as well. I lost track of how many different generators were in the power house. And it had this overview.

And this is the building just east of the station.
This photo has been moved to the "Daily News Building."

(new window)  If you get bored with the exterior views, move the slider to 4:28 where he starts interior views. I don't remember seeing interior views of the big waiting room before.


Lots of good info and images of the various Wells Street Stations.

Four photos of the pre-glass depot.

A long 1984 video of the outside and inside of the depot from a Facebook posting. It even has views on the roof.

Bob Lalich Flickr 1982 Photo, the concourse shortly before its demise.


In Sept 2020, I got hit with a Double Doomsday. Both Facebook and Google changed their software. I said "changed" instead of "updated" because the new software is not better. In fact, Google's Blogger software is far worse except for a search function that works. Specifically, it has three bugs concerning photos and their captions. So I'm no longer copying photos and interesting comments from Facebook. I'm just saving the link. I hope you can see posts in Private Groups.
The platform area soon after it opened in 1911  (there are photos of predecessor depots in the comment.)


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