Marshfield (1700W/400S)
Marshfield Avenue and Paulina Street, Near West Side

Service Notes:

Garfield Line/Douglas Line

Quick Facts:

Address: TBD
Established: May 6, 1895
Original Line: Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad
Previous Names: none

Skip-Stop Type:

Station

Rebuilt: n/a
Status: Demolished

History:

The Marshfield station was opened in 1895 when the Metropolitan "L" first opened. It was the last station on the main line before it divided into three separate branches: the Northwest branch, Garfield Park branch, and Douglas Park branch.

The Marshfield Junction was a complicated place indeed. East of the station, just after the Laflin stop, trains crossed over a segment where two inbound and two outbound tracks become two paralleling double-tracks. Garfield Park and Douglas Park trains used the set of tracks on the south side; Logan Square and Humboldt Park trains used the set to the north. This arrangement carried over to Marshfield's dual island platforms, where those bound northwest used the north while those going to points west and southwest used the south. A pedestrian transfer bridge connected the two. Immediately after the station, the tracks forked into a Y with three two-track lines (cutting the roof of the Dreamland Dance Hall into three slices!) going north (Humboldt Park and Logan Square), west (Garfield Park) and south (Douglas Park). The tower above the south platform was to monitor this junction. But, the arrangement didn't end there.

The Chicago Aurora & Elgin interurban, which used the Garfield Park branch to reach downtown Chicago through a reciprocal trackage rights agreement, also served Marshfield station from February 23, 1905 to September 20, 1953. The westbound CA&E stopped not at the "L" platform, but at a separate platform, immediately west of the junction, seen in the foreground postcard below. Eastbound CA&E trains stopped at the "L" platform to provide cross-platform transfers for many decades until the stop for rush hour trains was relocated from Marshfield to Ogden at the request of the CTA^® to clear up delays at Marshfield Junction.

In 1951, trains to and from Logan Square (later extended to Jefferson Park in 1970, then to O'Hare in 1984) were rerouted from their Milwaukee-Paulina alignment to Marshfield into the Milwaukee-Dearborn Subway, which continued under Milwaukee, under Lake Street, then under Dearborn, later connecting to the Congress-Douglas trains under Congress Street upon that alignment's completion in 1958. Garfield Park and Douglas Park trains to and from the Loop, however, continued to operate over the old Met main line and through Marshfield for the time being.

In 1953, the Garfield Line was rerouted via temporary grade-level trackage along Van Buren due to expressway construction, vacating the elevated and discontinued calling at Marshfield station. Marshfield was closed in 1954 when the Douglas Line was temporarily rerouted via the Lake Street "L" to the Loop. The old Garfield Park elevated was dismantled to allow the construction of the Congress Street Expressway (later called the Eisenhower Expressway) and the replacement Congress "L" Line in the median. No station was built to replace Marshfield, but the Douglas Line still connects to the main Blue Line here for trips to downtown.

This pre-World War I postcard looks east from Marshfield Junction. The single platform was used by outbound interurbans. The Met stopped at dual platforms beyond the transfer bridge. (Postcard from the Graham Garfield Collection)