Chicago, IL Depot: 1854 C&NW "Kinzie Street Depot" and 1863 Map

(Satellite, north of Kinzie along the North Branch)

This was the C&NW depot before it merged with the Galena & Chicago Union (G&CU).

IRM Strahorn Library posted three images with the comment:

Welcoming the Chicago and North-Western Historical Society to their building on the Illinois Railway Museum campus.  Congratulations on your move!

The Chicago and North Western's first Chicago station, built by predecessor Chicago, St. Paul & Fond du Lac (CSt.P&FdL) Railroad, was constructed along the west bank of the north branch of the Chicago River, adjacent and diagonally in a northwestern orientation to the first Galena & Chicago Union (G&CU) Railroad station.

C&NW station photo by C&NW Ry Public Relations Department Negative No 55.

For the explanation we continue with the work “Yesterday and To-day A History By Chicago and North Western Railway Company, William H. Stennett · 1905”

“OTHER CHICAGO DEPOTS OF THE NORTH -WESTERN COMPANY”

What is now (1905) a portion of the Chicago & North-Western Railway in Chicago was begun under the corporate name of the Illinois & Wisconsin Railroad Company, as will be told elsewhere. This afterward, by consolidation with the Rock River Valley Union Railroad, became the Chicago, St. Paul & Fond du Lac Railroad, and that, by bankruptcy and reorganization, became the Chicago & North-Western Railway. 

This railroad, while under the second of the corporate titles, built, in 1854, and occupied a passenger depot in Chicago. It stood with its gable end to Kinzie Street and its greatest length west of and quite close to and parallel with the North Branch of the Chicago River. It was quite a pretentious structure of wood, and had a large train -shed that was shut off from Kinzie Street by slatted gates.

After the Chicago & Milwaukee and the Milwaukee & Chicago railroads were consolidated, and ultimately those, together with the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, became the present Chicago & North-Western Railway, this depot was known as the “Kinzie Street Depot,” and was used until it was abandoned on the occupation of the present Wells Street depot in 1882. In early days two railroad companies owned and operated the railroad that ran between Chicago and Milwaukee. The southernmost, or Chicago end, was known as the Chicago & Milwaukee Railroad. In 1855 it built and occupied a passenger depot in Chicago. In those days a street ran from what is now West Kinzie Street, in a northwesterly direction east of and parallel with Milwaukee Avenue, and was known as Dunn Street.

An extension of this street still exists (as of 1905) west of North Halsted Street and west of Goose Island It begins at Fay Street and runs to, and a short distance beyond, Sangamon Street, and is known as Dix Street. North of Kinzie Street, and parallel thereto , and west of the north branch of the Chicago River, was a street known as Cook Street. This Milwaukee Passenger Depot, as it was called, was built in the angles formed by Kinzie, Dunn, and Cook streets. It was a one story wooden building. This building ultimately passed into the possession of the original Chicago & North-Western Railway Company.”

Some of the older travelers over the Galena road may remember they arrived at or left a passenger depot on the lake front. This fact should be explained. The explanation is this:

At one time, and for years, through passenger trains were run between Chicago and Dubuque, Iowa. These trains ran between Chicago and Freeport, Ill., over the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad ,and between 

Freeport and Dubuque over the Illinois Central Railroad. From the lake front of Chicago, at about what is now the east end of Sixteenth Street, a railroad known as the St. Charles Air Line was built west to near the Des Plaines River and just south of the Galena road. This road, as we have already stated, was purchased by the Galena company. The Dubuque trains referred to ran into and out of the passenger depot of the Illinois Central Railway, thence over this St. Charles Air Line to Harlem (Oak Park) , and thence by the main line of the Galena road to Freeport. At Harlem the part of the train that had left the Illinois Central depot met with another part of the train that had left the Galena depot, and from Harlem westward they were run as one train. Trains that were eastbound were split at Harlem , and one part, in the care of the conductor, was run over the St. Charles Air Line into the Illinois Central depot, while the rest of it, in charge of the baggageman or brakeman, was run over the main line of the Galena road into its depot on Wels Street.”

Figure 1. Chicago Passenger Terminals, 1863 from “The Location of Railroad Passenger Depots in Chicago and St. Louis, 1850-1900” by Carl Abbott in The Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin No. 120 April 1969.

IRM Strahorn Library shared

Larry Lavery shared

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[That grain elevator must be on the east side of the North Branch and served by the Milwaukee Road. It was evidently gone by 1901.]

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