Lake Street Transfer station

LAKE ST. TRANSFER   1700W 200N
Former Chicago "L" rapid transit station
The Lake Street Transfer. The Metropolitan is on top, the Lake Street Elevated on bottom.
General information
Location	1719 West Lake Street Chicago, Illinois, US[1]
Coordinates	41°53′07″N 87°40′12″W / 41.8852°N 87.6701°W / 41.8852; -87.6701
Owned by	Chicago Transit Authority (1947–1951) Chicago Rapid Transit Company (1924–1947) See text before 1924
Line(s)	Lake Street Elevated Logan Square Branch
Platforms	4 side platforms
Tracks	4
Construction
Structure type	Elevated
Platform levels	2
History
Opened	November 6, 1893; 131 years ago (1893-11-06) (Wood) May 6, 1895; 129 years ago (1895-05-06) (Lake) November 3, 1913; 111 years ago (1913-11-03) (Transfer)
Closed	February 25, 1951; 73 years ago (1951-02-25)
Electrified	May 9, 1896 (Lake Street Elevated) May 6, 1895 (Logan Square branch)
Previous names	Wood (Lake Street Elevated) Lake (Logan Square branch)
Passengers
1948	361,934  69.48%
Rank	122 out of 223
Former services
Preceding station Chicago "L" Following station Damen Closed 1948[a] toward Forest Park Lake Street Elevated Ashland Closed 1948[b] toward Loop (Randolph/Wells) or Market Terminal Grand toward Logan Square Logan Square branch Madison toward Marshfield
Track layout Legend Logan Square branch to Logan Square Lake Street Elevated to Forest Park Lake Street Elevated to The Loop or Market Terminal Logan Square branch to Marshfield This diagram does not include a junction from the Lake Street Elevated to the Paulina Connector as it was not built at the time of the closure.
Location

The Lake Street Transfer station was a rapid transit station on the Chicago "L", serving as a transfer station between its Lake Street Elevated Railroad and the Logan Square branch of its Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad. Located where the Logan Square branch crossed over the Lake Street Elevated, it was in service from 1913 to 1951, when it was rendered obsolete by the opening of the Dearborn Street subway.

The transfer station was an amalgamation of two predecessor stations: Wood, on the Lake Street Elevated, was on Wood Street, one block west of the site of the future transfer station, and had been constructed in 1893; the Metropolitan's Lake station, on the other hand, was on the site of the future transfer and had been built in 1895. These stations, and their lines, had been constructed by two different companies; when they and two more companies building what would become the "L" merged operations in the early 1910s, a condition for the merger was the construction of a transfer station between the Metropolitan and Lake Street Elevateds at their crossing, which in practice meant the replacement of Wood station with a new Lake Street one under the Metropolitan. Having already merged operations, the "L" companies formally united under the Chicago Rapid Transit Company (CRT) in 1924; the "L" became publicly owned when the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) assumed operations in 1947.

Plans for a subway to provide a more direct route from Logan Square to downtown dated to the late 1930s, but the subway was originally intended to supplement the Logan Square branch of the area, on which the Metropolitan's station lay, rather than replace it. The newly formed CTA, however, found little reason to continue operation of the old Logan Square elevated. The subway was completed in 1951, leading to the station's closure, but remnants of the station survived into the 1960s. The site of the station is near the junction of the Paulina Connector – the descendant of the old Logan Square trackage – and the Lake Street Elevated, which was used for temporary and non-revenue service until the Pink Line opened in 2006 and returned it to revenue status.

Lake Street Transfer was double-decked, the Metropolitan's tracks and station located immediately above the Lake Street's tracks and station. Access to the eastbound Lake Street platform was by a station house at the street level; passengers would then use the platform to access the Metropolitan's platforms and Lake Street's westbound platform by additional stairways.

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