Calvary (400N/500W)
Chicago Avenue and Hull Terrance (Across from the entrance to Calvary Cemetery), City of Evanston

Service Notes:

North Side Division: Evanston branch

Quick Facts:

Address: 400 N. Chicago Avenue
Established: May 16, 1908
Original Line: Northwestern Elevated Railroad, Evanston branch
Previous Names: none
Skip-Stop Type: n/a
Rebuilt: n/a
Status: Demolished

History:

The stairs at Calvary up to the southbound platform. (Photo by Graham Garfield)

"L" service first entered Evanston by way of an agreement to use the tracks of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway on May 16, 1908, replacing the steam service that the St. Paul had previously provided. The steam railroad's original station may have remained, but the "L" constructed a high-level platform station of simple frame construction for rapid transit use, all of which was demolished during the elevation of the tracks in 1909 (as per the 1907 franchise agreement from the City of Evanston).

The second station (the first actual "L" station) was constructed when the tracks were elevated, which was completed in 1910. Located under the tracks, in the embankment, the entrance faced Chicago Avenue, directly across from the entrance to Calvary Cemetery in Evanston. The exterior was brick while the interior walls were covered with glazed brick. The station house was quite small, with room enough inside for a modest agent's booth and a single turnstile. Despite its compact size, the station house also housed a public phone and both men's and women's toilets. The rear of the station deposited passengers into an open area around the building, allowing access to the stairs ahead to the southbound platform or the stairs to the northbound platform located on either side of the building. High-barrier gate turnstiles in this open area around the station building allowed riders to exit the station without entering the building.

Calvary was an unusual station in many respects and had the distinction of being one of the "L"'s only flag stops! (The only other was Isabella, southbound.) Inside the station, riders were given the following instructions on three painted signs:

Waiting passengers altered the motorman of an approaching train by pulling on a rope connected to a semaphore. Riders on trains who wished to alight simply told the crewman in their car. Calvary had some of the lowest ridership on the system, amounting to only 50,000 in its early years. Large-scale development of apartment buildings in south Evanston in the 1920s brought new riders, doubling usage to 100,000 boardings per year. (By the same token, the other flag stop, Isabella, went from a mere 14,000 boardings to 108,955 in the same time span.)

The station closed in 1931 and was replaced by the South Boulevard station a few blocks to the north, a site far better suited to serve the increasing population north of the cemetery. As a result of the move, ridership doubled again during the period 1932-1946. The Calvary station remained boarded and abandoned for more than six decades, though the platforms had been removed in the 1930s. It was most recently used for storage by a monument company. It was finally demolished in February 1995. Today, the station's been filled in with cement, but its location can still be easily identified by the fresh ballast on the older embankment.