Chicago Surface Lines car 6207 travels south, just beyond East 63rd Street, having passed under the Dorchester Avenue "L" station. (Photo from the Barney Neuberger Collection)

Dorchester (1400E/6300S)
Dorchester Avenue and 63rd Street, Woodlawn

Service Notes:

North-South Route, Jackson Park branch

Accessible Station (new station, never completed)

Transfer to Metra: Electric District (new station, never completed)

Quick Facts:

Address: 1400 E. 63rd Street
Established: April 23, 1893
Original Line: South Side Rapid Transit
Previous Names: Madison Avenue

Skip-Stop Type:

Station
Rebuilt: Date
Status: Demolished

History:

Dorchester, originally called Madison Avenue, opened April 23, 1893 as part of the South Side Rapid Transit's extension from 39th Street to Jackson Park for the World's Columbian Exposition. Service to Jackson Park (and the fair) didn't start until May 12, so in the interim, passengers disembarked at Madison and walked on a special walkway constructed on the "L" structure.

Dorchester was an unusual station and differed from its East 63rd Street companions in many ways. First, whereas all other Jackson Park branch stations had side platforms, Dorchester had an island platform. The structure above 63rd had a center track (used for storage), which ended just west of the station; the platform was located in this center space. Just east of the platform, the structure narrowed and the two tracks came side-by-side to cross the Illinois Central Railroad tracks. Just beyond here was a crossover, then the Jackson Park (Stony Island) station.

Additionally, whereas the other East 63rd stations (originally) had two track-level station houses, Dorchester was the only Jackson Park branch station to have a mezzanine-level facility below the tracks, over 63rd Street. The architecture may have been somewhat similar to King Drive, three stations west on the same line.

Beginning in 1919, trains of the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee interurban railroad began to operate into the Loop via the tracks of the North Side "L". Beginning in 1922, some trains continued south to Dorchester, operating its Merchandise Dispatch from the 63rd Street Lower Yard. (Numerous other transit connections could be made at Dorchester, including to the Chicago Lake Shore & South Bend Railroad; electric cars to Windsor Park, South Chicago and South Deering; and trains of the Illinois Central Railroad.) As for why the CNS&M trains didn't continue to the end of the line (only one station east),

The trains had to go beyond Dorchester (the next-to-last station) to come back on the other track, perhaps going up to the Jackson Park platform "on top" of a short "L" train and changing ends quickly.

If Jackson Park had been listed as a North Shore station, the trains would have had to go all the way to the end of the track and stand for a while to load or unload. Maybe that would have unduly obstructed the frequent Jackson Park Express "L" trains.1

Basically, ending at Dorchester prevented them from getting in the way of the "L". North Shore Line service to Dorchester ceased in 1938 when the service was cut back to Roosevelt.

The Dorchester station was closed January 13, 1973, presumably due to a lack of use. It may have been torn down shortly thereafter.

Despite the lack of a station facility there, Dorchester came back into the public eye on March 4, 1982, when service on the Jackson Park branch was suspended south of 61st Street due to structural defects in the Dorchester bridge over the Illinois Central Railroad. On December 12, 1982, service was restored as far as the University stop. The defective bridge was demolished in 1987.

Ever since, talk abounded of re-extending the Jackson Park branch to Dorchester and building a new terminal there. Mayor Jane Byrne announced a four-point program in 1982 that included a new Jackson Park branch terminal at Dorchester, providing direct access to the Illinois Central commuter line and a CTA® bus terminal. Work began in the 1990s on this extension from University to Dorchester.

When the Green Line closed for renovation in 1994, maps began to list Dorchester as the terminus, anticipating the new terminal facility that was to be built there as part of the line rehab. The new "L" structure from University to Dorchester was built, including signals and interlockings, and a new station mostly completed. This facility, however, was never opened and and actually torn down due to political pressure brought to bear on the CTA® by certain residents of Woodlawn and Reverend Arthur Brazier, who believed the structure over East 63rd Street would further blight Woodlawn and prevent redevelopment. As a result, the CTA® gave up millions of federal dollars invested in the project and rapid transit service was withdrawn from much of the Woodlawn community.

When the Green Line reentered service in May, 1996, Cottage Grove-East 63rd became the end of the line. The Dorchester station was never used and the tracks built beyond University were demolished in September, 1997, with the CTA® forfeiting the federal grant funds they'd received to build the intermodal facility.

 

1"Shop Track" First and Fastest. Vol. X, No. 3 (Autumn 1994), 14.