The deco mezzanine-level station of Clark/Division, looking out from the paid area circa 1943. Today, only the agent's booth on the left remains. For a larger view, click here. (Photo by the Peter Fish Studios)

Clark/Division (1200N/100W)
Clark Street and Division Street, Near North Side

Service Notes:

Red Line: State Street Subway

Owl Service

Quick Facts:

Address: 1200 N. Clark Street
Established: October 17, 1943
Original Line: State Street Subway
Previous Names: none

Skip-Stop Type:

Station (1949-1978)

Station (1978-1995)
Rebuilt: n/a
Status: In Use

History:

Clark/Division's long island platform. Clark is the only station north of the Loop on the State Street subway to have an island platform. The photo dates from 1943, just before the line's opening. For a larger view, click here. (Photo by the Peter Fish Studios)
With the exception of North/Clybourn just one stop to the north, all of the station's on the State Street subway had subterranean, mezzanine-level stations.

In an informational book published for the opening of the subway in October 1943 by the Department of Subways and Superhighways entitled Chicago Subways, the facilities were described as being of a "modern design" (somewhere between Art Deco and Art Moderne). The mezzanine stations had smooth concrete floors and ceilings and gray structural glass walls. The fare control booths consisted of stone walls with a small ventilation grate near the bottom and glass windows on all four sides. Turnstiles were steel. The mezzanines had a number of passenger conveniences, including men's and women's public restrooms, lockers, drinking fountains, and pay phones inside "soundproof" booths (which actually did insulate the user from most outside noise, in spite of its seemingly open design). As built, the island platform had red no-slip concrete floors, curved concrete ceilings and I-beam steel columns. Fluorescent lights and illuminated station signs hanging from the ceilings -- one of the few stations to retain these -- finished the decoration. Today, this station has been altered little. In Summer 2003, the original Art Moderne illuminated station signs on the island platform had new sign faces made with replications of the original graphics, including the correct colors and the specially-designed Futura-variant typeface used in Chicago's Initial System of Subways stations.

Clark/Division was scheduled to be remodeled by the Chicago Department of Transportation in the style of Roosevelt/State by April 1999 for a cost of $15 million, but has not yet came to pass. Rehabilitation of the Clark/Division station was then tentatively set to start in 2004-05, depending on funding availability according to the city, but this has also come and gone. It may also have its main entrance moved to LaSalle/Division at that time, with Clark becoming an auxiliary entrance and exit. These plans, however, are still in development. CDOT's 2002-05 Capital Improvement Program includes engineering and design for the Clark/Division subway station renovation, completed in August 2002 at a cost of $1,950,000. Overhaul of the Clark/Division station is now planned for 2010, Chicago Department of Transportation spokesman Brian Steele said in July 2007.

The work represents one piece of an extensive campaign to renovate nearly all of the downtown subway system, from Roosevelt/State on the south to Clark/Division on the north. The CTA® is spending $60 million to upgrade 21 rail station facilities with granite floors, ceramic-tile ceilings, better lighting and security cameras, and to provide full accessibility. Roosevelt/State was renovated in 1996, followed by Randolph-Washington in 1997.

The Clark/Division platform, seen looking north on August 13, 2003, is still largely as it was built 60 years earlier. This station is one of the few left that still has its original illuminated station name signs -- referred to as a Type 'F' Illuminated Sign" in the original drawings -- which had the graphics of their backlit sign faces returned to the original 1943 designs in Summer 2003. For a larger view, click here. (Photo by Graham Garfield)

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A Clark/Division symbol sign from the 1980s. This KDR-style sign dates from after 1978, when Clark/Division changed from an "AB" station to an "A" station. Following the KDR color-coding scheme, "AB" stations had blue signs (as this symbol sign is), yet the station's red "A" station name signs remain to this day. (Sign from the collection of Graham Garfield)

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A first-generation southbound KDR-type symbol sign from Clark/Division station, with its red background denoting its status as a "A" station. (Sign from the Andrew Stiffler Collection)

clark-division_SBsignAB.jpg (48k)
After the station was changed from an A Station to an an AB Station, the symbol signs were changed to ones with a blue background (blue symbolizing an AB Station). Note that the design of the sign is identical to the one above. All that was changed was the color and the bottom line displaying the station type. (Sign from the Andrew Stiffler Collection)