The new Indiana station house, looking northeast in mid-August 2001. The glass and steel facility sits in the same location as the original 1892 station. The stairs to the platform are lined with green metal mesh, which provides little protection from the elements. For a larger view, click here. (Photo by Graham Garfield)

Indiana (4000S/200E)
Indiana Avenue and 40th Street, Grand Boulevard

Service Notes:

Green Line: South Side Elevated

Accessible Station

Quick Facts:

Address: 4003 S. Indiana Avenue
Established: August 15, 1892
Original Line: South Side Rapid Transit
Previous Names: none

Skip-Stop Type:

Station (1949-1963)

Station (1963-1993)
Rebuilt: 1907 (new station house), 1988 (new platforms), 2000-01 (new station house)
Status: In Use

History:

South Side Rapid Transit Baldwin locomotive 25 stops at Indiana on a northbound trip in 1895. The crossing gate is for the tracks of the then-at-grade Chicago Junction Railway (seen on the left), which served on the Stock Yards. The tracks were later elevated alongside the "L"s. For a larger view, click here. (Photo from the Krambles-Peterson Collection)
Indiana station was built as part of the South Side Rapid Transit's extension to the Columbian Exposition in 1892. The original station building was a grade-level structure that resembled other stations built as part of the extension, such as the building still at Garfield and those now removed from 43rd, 47th, 51st, 58th, and 61st.

Designed by architect Myron H. Church and built by the Rapid Transit and Bridge Construction Company (under general contractor Alfred Walcott and engineer R.I. Sloan), the station house is designed with a Queen Anne-style influence. The building was constructed of brick with stone sills and foundation with polychrome brickwork along the top of the exterior in a latticed diamond pattern. Perhaps the building's most prominent feature was the bay that projected from the front elevation, with its broad half-cone roof. The building's bay and brick frieze display many qualities of the Queen Anne style, although the flat terra-cotta cornice and other elements show some examples of early Chicago School of architecture. The dual side platforms consisted of a wooden deck on a steel structure. The original canopies were humped-shaped, typical of the original South Side Rapid Transit designs, but were replaced early on with short canopies of steel posts supporting a flat tin roof.

When the Indiana Avenue station was built as part of the South Side Rapid Transit's extension to Jackson Park and the World's Fair, it was just another neighborhood station. By 1908, it was much more. When the Stock Yards and Kenwood branches were opened, their trains were routed through Indiana, making it a busy transfer station. Base Kenwood service consisted of 42nd Place-Indiana shuttles, requiring passengers to transfer to other trains until Wilson-Kenwood and Ravenswood-Kenwood through trains were instituted. The Stock Yards trains rarely went beyond Indiana (with the exception of a few runs to 61st and 18th Streets), terminating on a stub track at Indiana for its entire fifty year run. Later, a few Kenwood-Stock Yards trips were instituted. When these lines ceased service in 1957, Indiana returned to its peaceful neighborhood character.

The original facility was demolished by 1907. As part of an ordinance to allow the South Side Elevated to install a third track for express service, all stations north of 43rd Street, including this one, were required to replace their grade-level facilities with mezzanine-level stations, clearing the alley way beneath the tracks. The station likely would have needed to be rebuilt anyway to accommodate the new Kenwood and Stock Yards branches, as well as the elevation of the adjacent Chicago Junction freight line. The southbound platform at Indiana also had to be moved.

The Indiana fare collection area in 1998. This 'temporary' fare control area, established when the mezzanine station house was demolished, was in service for many years. For a larger view, click here. (Photo by Linda Garfield)
The mezzanine fare control facility remained until the 1960s, when the CTA® removed it in favor of a simply street-level fare control area. A high chainlink fence was installed around a concrete slab on the west side of the street, which served as the station entrance. A ticket agent's booth was installed at the opening to the fence to collect fares. Passengers continued to reach the existing platforms using the existing stairways.

In 1987, the CTA® planned to shut down the Indiana Avenue station because of its "severely deteriorated condition," but in 1988 instead decided to embark on a project to renovate a number stations including this one, 58th, and others. This resulted in the platform being completely rebuilt to modern specifications in white-painted steel with wood floors and a full-width canopy. The fare collection remained at street level, using "open air" facility consisting of turnstiles and an agent's booth enclosed by a simple, tall chainlink enclosure and protected by an overhead canopy. Since the station had been rebuilt so recently, little work was required at platform level during the 1994-1996 Green Line rehab, except for the installation of stainless steel windbreaks with mountings for station signs.

On September 15th, 1999, the CTA® announced that the Indiana station would receive a new station house. The facility is at ground-level on the east side of the street (where the original 1892 station house was), supplementing the platforms and canopy that were rebuilt in 1988. The new masonry station house includes a customer assistant kiosk, modern lighting, HVAC systems, and two new elevators to make station handicapped accessible. There will also be station-wide improvements to the public address system.

Construction began in 2000 and by early 2001, the structure of the station house, the elevator cabs, electrical and mechanical systems, roofing, stair canopy steel, stair mesh screens were installed. The existing stairs and station fare control area on the west side of the street were converted to an auxiliary exit and the fare controls were removed. The exterior finish of the new station house is white and green glass and steel in the open plan design typical of modern CTA® facilities. The new Indiana station facility opened on Tuesday, March 20, 2001, but was not complete until May 1, 2001.

Indiana's platforms, looking east as a Loop-bound Green Line train pulls in in mid-August 2001. The platforms date from a 1988 rebuilt, with only two new elevators (visually blocked by the full-width canopy) and new signage added since its construction. For a larger view, click here. (Photo by Graham Garfield)

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An Indiana sign from before 1993. (Sign from the collection of Graham Garfield)

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A southbound Englewood-Normal Park train led by a "baldie" 4000-series car pulls out of Indiana Avenue. At left, a Stock Yards trains waits on the stub track for connecting passengers to board before beginning its westbound trip. (Photo from the Chicago Transit Authority Collection)

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The Indiana station complex, looking northwest in January, 1998. Access to the substantial white steel platform is regulated by the surprisingly temporary-looking (but unfortunately permanent) fare controls at street-level, surrounded by a simple chain link fence. (Photo by Linda Garfield)

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A Harlem-bound Green Line train approaches the Indiana Avenue station in 1996, soon after the line reopened. (Photo from Chicago's "L"/Subway System: Take a Ride on the Wild Side from All-the-6000s-You-Missed Productions)

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A view of the Indiana platform, looking west from a Green Line train loading and unloading passengers. (Photo from Chicago's "L"/Subway System: Take a Ride on the Wild Side from All-the-6000s-You-Missed Productions)

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The entrance to the new Indiana station, about a month after it opened in March 2001. (Photo from the CTA web site)

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A view of the retrofitted Indiana station, looking west from a Green Line train. The platforms date from 1988, but the elevators are a new addition to make the facility ADA compliant. (Photo by Graham Garfield)

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CTA® car 1706, a 1903 St. Louis product, sits in the Kenwood pocket track at Indiana station in this undated view. The car is displaying "Stockyards" destination signs, so it may have just come up from 61st Street Yard to fill a Kenwood schedule, with the crew had yet to change the signs for the Kenwood trip. This car was scrapped in August of 1954. (Photo from the Jeff Obarek Collection)

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Car 6258, in its Mint Green and Alpine White livery, leads a northbound Englewood-Howard "A" train at Indiana Ave. on October 2, 1972. The extra wide platform in the background is the result of a third track that was removed and covered over. (Photo by Steve Zabel, Collection of Joe Testagrose)

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A Jackson Park-Howard "B" train, led by 6313, passes "A" station Indiana on October 2, 1972. Note the extra wide northbound platform. Originally, there was a third track where the forward part of the platform is now (the track occupied by 6313 was an express track). The Kenwood branch continued straight from where the tracks turn right in the background. Another train of 6000s passes on the southbound track. (Photo by Steve Zabel. Collection of Joe Testagrose)

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Car 6428 trails a northbound Englewood-Howard "A" train at Indiana on October 2, 1972. Although the platform on the left (southbound) was originally built as a side platform, its later conversion to an island platform to transfers to the Stock Yards Line is evident, even about fifteen years after the Stock Yards Line's abandonment. (Photo by Steve Zabel, Collection of Joe Testagrose)

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The elevated structure through Indiana station was largely rebuilt between 1988 (when Indiana station's platform were rebuilt) and 1996 (when the Green Line rehab was completed), hence relatively little of the 1890s structure remains here. The embankment on the left carried the Chicago Junction freight tracks. (Photo by William Davidson)