The Oakton station is seen looking northeast on June 12, 1930 as a single car Niles Center train, unit 1044, departs the station. The sparse nature of Niles Center's development at the dawn of the Depression can be clearly seen, although the few visible apartment buildings show that what little high-density existed at the time was centered around the Oakton station. For a larger view, click here. (Photo from the Krambles-Peterson Collection)

Oakton (4800W/8000N)
Oakton Street and Skokie Boulevard, Village of Skokie

Service Notes:

Yellow Line: Skokie Swift

Quick Facts:

Address: TBD
Established: March 28, 1925
Original Line: North Side Division, Niles Center branch
Previous Names: none
Skip-Stop Type: n/a
Rebuilt: n/a
Status: Under Construction

History:

This station, which in many ways resembles the Dempster station of the same line, was the only stop on the "L"'s Niles Center route that was even remotely close to what little population existed in the empty suburb of Niles Center (later Skokie) in 1925. This station served Skokie's downtown. Built as part of the Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad's Skokie Valley Route, a high-speed bypass for the interurban around the more congested North Shore suburbs, the Chicago rapid transit had trackage rights on the line and operated local service to intermediate stations between Howard and Dempster, including Oakton. The North Shore Line never used this stop, even though it was one of only two also used by the "L" that it helped pay for. Both the North Shore Line and Chicago Rapid Transit Company were owned by utilities magnate Samuel Insull.

The ladies behind the concession counter in the Oakton station are ready to serve hungry passengers who might pass through. An egg salad sandwich cost only 15 cents; a Coke could be had for only a nickel. For a larger view, click here. (Photo from the Bruce G. Moffat Collection)
Arthur U. Gerber, staff architect for Sam Insull, designed the depot. Nearly identical to the Dempster station at the end of the line, Oakton was smaller and set between the tracks with a single high-level island platform projecting from the rear of the station house.

The Oakton station's architecture is an interesting mix of styles. While the building is could be classified as Prairie School based on its intricate eaves and bracket work, low-pitched roof, multi-paned casement windows and strong horizontal lines, closer examination of the structure indicates that elements such as its textured exterior brickwork and elaborately bracketed eaves with exposed rafters more closely classify the building as belonging to the bungalow vernacular style, a building type popular at the time with residential development at the time but rarely seen in rail stations.

The exterior is executed in dark textured brick with a foundation, belt course (through the windows) and plain slip windowsills of light cast stone. The station has a low-pitched hipped roof with overhanging eaves on the front and back. In the front, it creates a porch supported by massive tapered cement posts, and in the rear it continues over the island platform to create a sheltering canopy. The windows along the side elevations have a typically Prairie School design, with each bay consisting of three long, narrow, vertical multipaned windows flanked on the ends by smaller square nine-paned windows. Exposed rafters and wooden brackets under the eaves fill out he exterior decoration and a signature Gerber touch included globe lamps under the eaves.

The interior was simple and open, but still quite attractive. It included a floor, brick walls with cast stone sills, and wooden moldings. Most of the modest interior was a waiting room. Along the east wall was a row of carved wooden benches. At the front of the interior, at the southeast corner of the space, was a wooden ticket agents' booth. A lunch counter was located along the west wall of the interior.

The Niles Center branch and Oakton station opened for service on March 28, 1925.

Following the withdrawal of "L" service in 1948, the Oakton station was abandoned. Used briefly by a sign company, it spent most of its later life boarded up. In this 1964 view, the Village of Skokie has used the building to advertise its adjacent downtown. Soon after, the building was demolished. For a larger view, click here. (Photo from the CTA Collection)
The station's history over the next couple decades was fairly unremarkable. Within just a few years of the opening of the Skokie Valley Route and the CRT's Niles Center local service the Depression hit. New construction in the suburb virtually halted. By the time the Chicago Transit Authority took over in 1947, the Niles Center branch's prospects for high (or even respectable) ridership levels were still dim. The hoped-for development of Niles Center was squelched by the Depression just a few years after the line opened, and remained unfeasible through World War II. After assuming operation of the "L" system, the CTA studied each rapid transit line and monitored each station. Then, bit by bit, they closed the stations and lines that were most uneconomical and had the lowest ridership to concentrate on the stronger routes. The Niles Center Line fell victim to this systematic pruning when on March 27, 1948, service between Howard and Dempster was replaced by the #97 Skokie bus line. This date was chosen in large part because it so happened that the North Shore Line's employees went on strike on this date -- one of several NSL strikes of the 1940s -- meaning that the Skokie Valley Route was not staffed, preventing the Niles Center branch from operating. Service had to be suspended on the branch due to the North Shore Line strike anyway, so it was a convenient opportunity served to drop a service that was marginal at best.

The North Shore Line continued to operate on the Skokie Valley Route but did not provide service to Oakton station, which remained shuttered and abandoned. The Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee ceased operation in the early morning hours of January 21, 1963.

In 1963, following North Shore Line abandonment, the CTA began work to convert the Skokie Valley Line as far north as Dempster to a new rapid transit line. The Transit Authority planned to resume "L" service over the line, though rather than a local branch service it was envisioned as a nonstop shuttle between Dempster and Howard. The "Skokie Swift", as it was dubbed, opened to the public on Monday, April 20, 1964. Remarkably, when the Skokie Swift was inaugurated in 1964, no station was built on this site, even though it is a mere block from Skokie's central business district.

 

A Return to Oakton

Since shortly after the Swift began operating in 1963, there has also been an interest on the part of the Village of Skokie and that town's citizens to reestablish at least one of the local stations. The one most likely to return would be Oakton, since it would serve Skokie's downtown and would likely have the most potential traffic. A study commissioned by the Village of Skokie and completed in Fall 2003 recommended establishing a stop at Oakton.

Village officials see building a stop at Oakton as a benefit to the village's major downtown project calling for a developer to purchase the 28-acre Pfizer Pharmaceuticals property and create a life sciences research park. The station will be located next to the property and will be ideal for employees coming to and leaving work. The CTA supported both the Oakton station and the extension of the line. A 2003 letter from CTA President Frank Kruesi released by the village stated, "By extending [the Skokie Swift] north, and providing infill stations, the CTA will make better use of existing service capacity and provide expanded reverse commute opportunities."

Reestablishing an Oakton stop would change the nature of the Yellow Line's fast, nonstop shuttle operation, though one additional stop might not make a substantial enough difference to substantially alter the service provided.

In early 2005, the village received $417,000 in a federal grant earmarked for the station's design, which covers about 80 percent of design costs for the station. The village picked up the remainder, about $104,000, according to Village Director of Engineering Fred Schattner. Then, in mid-2005, village staff submitted a grant proposal to the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality grant program, which provides funds for projects that contribute to traffic congestion relief and cleaner air quality.

In late November 2005, the Skokie secured a $1 million federal grant for the village's downtown Skokie Swift project with the help of U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-9th). Then, in early December 2005, Skokie learned they would receive an additional $9.2 million in federal grant funds to construct the station. The entire project was estimated to cost about $15 million in 2005, including any land acquisition needed, which means the village had by this time secured more than two-thirds of the funding. Skokie Mayor Van Dusen has said he is exploring options to help pay for some or all of the remaining cost. The total cost rose to more than $20 million by 2010, however. By that time, the $20 million cost was split between a $14.1 million federal grant and $6 million from the village's tax increment finance fund.

The station will be located on the site of the original station, just west of Skokie Boulevard, north of Oakton Street and adjacent to the new Illinois Science + Technology Park.

The village sought proposals from firms for design work for the new station. According to Van Dusen, station design would begin in Summer 2006. Three designs for the station were prepared, according to Ron Rolsing of McDonough Associates, the company overseeing the design and engineering of the project -- one Prairie-inspired, one a "high-tech tubular" design and one that is a combination of the two. The more modern design for the station was the one that was chosen.

In early 2007, the Village of Skokie was considering initiating eminent domain proceedings against two landowners to make room for the new Oakton stop, with the Village Board approving the step Monday, December 18, 2006 if negotiations to buy the properties fail. The station could still be built without the additional parcels at 8116 and 8152-8200 Skokie Blvd., said Tom Thompson, Skokie's economic development coordinator. But acquiring the land is vital because extra space is needed for a "kiss and ride" stop, a bus turnaround and a taxi drop-off area, officials said.

The village has made several bids to buy the properties, officials said, but the buyers have not agreed to sell at a price that was determined by the village's appraiser. The Skokie Boulevard properties house an auto repair shop and a truck rental business. Negotiations will continue, but if an agreement is not reached soon, the village could move ahead with the eminent domain proceedings. That step, unanimously approved by the Village Board at Monday's meeting, wasn't entered into lightly, officials said.

In 2007, trustees approved an intergovernmental agreement between the village and the CTA for station design services. During the year, the village made major progress in a fairly short amount of time, clearing hurdles such as soil borings, a geotechnical report and a space-needs analysis, Schattner said. The village planned to complete the design and put the construction contracts out for bids in 2008. Officials had expected construction of the Skokie Swift station to begin in Fall 2009, but a delay in receiving federal grant money pushed the schedule back. The process was also slowed down because the federal grant had to be processed through the Illinois Department of Transportation and did not come directly to the village.

In December 2009, the Board approved awarding a contract to McDonough Associates for architectural and engineering services. In May 2010, Village Trustees approved three mandatory agreements -- one with ComEd and two with the CTA -- that cleared the way for the project to move forward.

On Monday, June 7, 2010, Village Trustees signed off on awarding just under $13 million in bids for 10 contracts in connection with constructing the new Oakton station. Subcontracting work that gained Village Board approval was for fencing, concrete, masonry, structural steel and miscellaneous metals, general carpentry, aluminum storefront and glazing, painting, train signals, communications and electrical. The 10 bids, Village Manager Al Rigoni said, came in at or under budget, but they represented only a little more than half of the subcontracts that need to be awarded.

In the case of eight subcontracts, Rigoni said, there either was one bid or no bid. These include the contracts for site utilities, earthwork, landscaping, architectural metals, granite, plumbing, air conditioning and heating and signs. Rigoni said the eight subcontracts will be rebid on June 17 and the village expects much better results. Trustees signed off on the final eight subcontracts that were re-bid during the first week of July. The process resulted in multiple bids for contracts covering site utilities, earthwork, architectural metals and plumbing, but the other four contracts still received only single bids. Village officials said the insurance requirements ComEd imposed for accessing and working on their right of way, the uncertainty associated with work schedule disruptions caused by CTA trains, and the obligation to meet and pay for the required levels of insurance likely dissuaded many smaller contractors from bidding. The contracts came in at a total of $4.8 million.

The groundbreaking ceremony marking the beginning of construction on the new station took place Monday morning, June 21, 2010. Skokie village officials substituted the blowing of a vintage train whistle for the traditional groundbreaking at the ceremony. The Illinois Railway Museum supplied the whistle, an authentic whistle used by Chicago Rapid Transit Co. "L" trains, which was hooked to an air compressor. Officials attending the ceremony included CTA President Richard Rodriguez, Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen, Skokie Village Manager Al Rigoni, Skokie Trustee Donald Perille, RTA Board Member William Coulson, U.S. Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin, and State Representative Louis Lang.

Construction got underway in late 2010. Early work centered around preparing the site for construction the new facility. Rail service along the Yellow Line was temporarily suspended over the weekend of January 8-9 for work associated with relocating Searle Crossover and its signals and relay house further north, out of the way of the station.

Construction is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2011.