Harlem (7200W/700S)
Harlem Avenue and Harrison Street, Village of Forest Park

Service Notes:

Garfield Line

Quick Facts:

Address: TDB
Established: 1910¹
Original Line: Metropolitan West Side Elevated, Garfield Park branch
Previous Names: none

Skip-Stop Type:		Station (1951-1952)
		Station (1952-1953)

Rebuilt: n/a
Status: Demolished

History:

The Aurora Elgin & Chicago interurban began service from Aurora and Wheaton to a connection with the "L" at 52nd Avenue (Laramie) on August 25, 1902. However, a station at Harlem Avenue was not originally included on the AE&C's main line; the interurban instead had a station at Wisconsin Avenue, one block east of Harlem, and at Hannah Avenue, a few blocks west.

AE&C service to stations on this segment of their main line was short-lived, as the Metropolitan "L" assumed local service between 52nd Avenue and Desplaines Avenue on March 11, 1905, relieving the AE&C of this unwanted chore. The extension of Garfield Park service to Desplaines and the Met's servicing of the local stations between was part of the reciprocal trackage agreement that allowed the AE&C to extend to downtown Chicago and the Fifth Avenue Terminal over the Metropolitan Elevated.

The Met "L" continued to serve the existing stations at Hannah Avenue and at Wisconsin Avenue (with the latter station later referred to as Maple Avenue) following their 1905 assumption of local service. However, "L" service to the Maple Avenue station was short-lived. Maple station appears to have been closed in 1910,¹ replaced by new stations on either side of it -- to the west at Harlem Avenue, and to the east at Home Avenue.

The Harlem station consisted of a pair of high-level wooden side platforms on the west side of Harlem Avenue. Eventually, a station house was located at the entry to the inbound platform from the street. The design was typical of other small wood frame ground-level Met station houses. The headhouse was positioned between the street and the boarding platform, requiring passage through the station house before reaching the platform. The exterior used clapboard siding and a peaked roof with eaves that extended out about a foot. Wooden steps led up to the front doors, while the rear opened out onto the inbound platform.

On September 14, 1952, the next station to the west, Hannah, closed due to its low patronage and to speed up service on the Garfield Line. At that time, Harlem changed from being an "A" station to a "AB" station in the A/B skip stop pattern. The continued use of A/B skip stop service on the Garfield Line was short-lived, however, being annulled one year later.

During the 1950s, the City of Chicago and Cook County undertook construction of the Congress Superhighway [Eisenhower Expressway] along the general alignment of the Garfield Park "L" line. Part of the project also included the new new Congress "L" Line to replace the Garfield Park. The Congress Expressway opened in stages between 1955 and 1960; on June 22, 1958, the first section of the new Congress Line opened between Halsted and Laramie, replacing the Garfield Park elevated.

Work on the Congress Expressway and "L" line west of Laramie Avenue resulted in some complicated staging and several temporary facilities along the at-grade portion of the Garfield Line. On November 27, 1957, westbound Garfield Line trains shifted to a set of temporary tracks between Kenilworth and Beloit, north than the previous alignment. Concurrent with the move to the temporary alignment, a temporary island platform was opened on east side of Harlem Avenue for westbound trains and the old westbound side platform on the west side of Harlem Avenue was closed. Eastbound trains followed onto the temporary alignment and began using the temporary island platform on December 11, closing the old eastbound side platform on the east side of Harlem Avenue.

Two-and-a-half years later, the permanent right-of-way was ready, although the permanent replacement Congress Line station was not. On March 19, 1960, the permanent eastbound Congress Line track was placed in service between Waller and Desplaines in open cut alongside site of future expressway. A new temporary island platform was placed in service on the east side of Harlem Avenue. The next day, on March 20, the permanent westbound track was also placed in service, closing the previous temporary platform. Meanwhile, between the permanent tracks, the new, permanent island platform was constructed west of Harlem. The new Harlem station platform was placed in service on July 29, 1960, with temporary fare controls at platform level. The permanent fare controls at Harlem, including the auxiliary entrance/exit at Circle Avenue, opened on December 27, 1960.

Notes:

1. Explicit documentation of the exact date, or even the year, of the closure of the Maple station and opening of the Harlem and Home stations is as yet unlocated. However, several pieces of evidence point to sometime in 1910. A map titled "Birds-Eye View of the Elevated Railroads, Parks and Boulevards of Chicago," published by the McComber Directory Company and dated 1910, still shows a Maple Ave station on the Garfield Park branch (and no Harlem or Home), but a "Map of Chicago Elevated Railroad" published by Rand McNally & Co. and dated 1911, does show Harlem and Home stations instead of Maple. In addition, the first annual ridership numbers recorded for Harlem and Home are for 1910. While this is also the first year for any ridership stats for individual stations between Laramie and Desplaines (for 1905-09, ridership for stations in that zone was counted under the collective "Conductors" category, suggesting there were no station houses with agents and all fares were collected onboard until 1910), and thus does not itself make this data conclusive for a year for the switch from Maple to Harlem and Home, that a map published in 1910 shows Maple station but ridership figures first appear for Harlem and Home that same year strongly suggest that the switch between those stations occurred at some date during 1910.