Gunderson (500W/900S)
Gunderson Avenue and Harrison Street, Village of Oak Park

Service Notes:

Garfield Line

Quick Facts:

Address: TBD

Established:	Late summer/fall 1902 (AE&C interurban service inaugurated)
	March 11, 1905 ("L" service inaugurated)

Original Line:	Aurora, Elgin & Chicago Railway (interurban service)
	Metropolitan West Side Elevated, Garfield Park branch ("L" service)

Previous Names: Union Avenue

Skip-Stop Type:

Station

Rebuilt: exact date uncertain (circa 1926)
Status: Demolished

History:

In 1899, the Gunderson brothers, George and Seward, formed a business partnership building homes and selling real estate in Cicero Township. Their firm built several hundred homes from 1899-1925 in Chicago and Oak Park. Much of south Oak Park was open prairie until Seward Gunderson subdivided the land around the turn of the century and began building tracts of affordable homes that reflected the time in which they were built, featuring with large front porches, built-in cabinetry, fine woodwork, built-in glasswork, and third floors that are easily converted from attics to living space.

The Aurora Elgin & Chicago (AE&C) interurban began service from Aurora and Wheaton to a connection with the "L" at 52nd Avenue (Laramie) on August 25, 1902. On opening day, not every station was ready; in the Maywood and Oak Park areas, the stations in service on the first day were Maywood (5th Avenue), Harlem (referring to the Village of Harlem, not the Avenue, so this was Desplaines Avenue), Oak Park (Avenue), Austin Avenue, and 52nd Avenue. However, early photos and records indicate that other stations were soon added.¹ A map in an October 1902 Street Railway Journal article lists all the stations planned on this section of line, suggesting that the remaining stations, including one at Union Avenue, opened between August and October 1902.

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 station was initially served by shuttle trains that ran only between Desplaines and 52nd Avenue; there passengers had to transfer to a train to the city, but didn't have to pay a second fare. Through shuttles to the city began in 1906 during rush hours. Eventually, a local through train was added.

By 1908, the name of Union Avenue had been changed to Gunderson Avenue in Oak Park.

Seward Gunderson sent out postcards like this one to instruct potential home-buyers how to reach his new subdivision by way of the Garfield Park branch. The image depicts the original Gunderson station that was built to serve the development, For a larger view, click here. (Postcard from the Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest Collection)

Seward Gunderson had postcards of the station made, seen at right, that were sent to prospective buyers to show them how to use the "L" to reach the development. By this time, the station here was a wooden grade-level station with two side platforms. Only one side had a station house, however, and the other side had only a simple high-level platform. As most boarding traffic at the station was toward Chicago, the station house on the inbound platform. Unlike other typical ground-level station houses of the "L", however, the platform did not project from the back of the station house, requiring passengers to pass through it and its fare controls to gain access to the platform. Rather, it was positioned to the side of the platform, not unlike a main line or commuter rail depot. The small station house was a simple affair, with wood siding and a pyramidal roof with wide overhanging eaves. The outbound platform had a short one-car canopy with a hipped roof and center wooden columns with angled brackets. Passengers here might have been expected to buy a ticket from the agent on the inbound platform before proceeding to the outbound side, but more likely a conductor on the train took care of the fares from the modest number of people that boarded outbound here.

Circa 1910, thought was given to adding two more tracks between between Desplaines and 52nd Avenue, through Gunderson station, to allow separated local and express service. Although the necessary governmental approvals were received, no construction was undertaken. Instead, a simple bypass track was installed at Gunderson to allow trains to pass one another.

To further expedite service, a full center track was installed at Gunderson in 1926 to that "L" expresses and Chicago Aurora & Elgin interurbans could pass slower Garfield Park "L" locals without interrupting or slowing service. Around this time the station was rebuilt and it was probably the extra width required by widening the right-of-way from two to three tracks that necessitated the moving and reconstruction of the station building. The rebuilt Gunderson station still only had a station house on the inbound side, with just a platform on the other. This time, however, the design was more 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. The front features one set of double doors, while the sides are broken up by four double-hung sash windows. The rear opened out onto one of the dual platforms. The interior was most likely floor-to-ceiling tongue-in-groove paneling, wood floors and paneled ceilings with a small ticket booth near the entrance, benches along the walls, a boiler stove for heat and incandescent lights for illumination.

The station was closed in 1957 when Garfield Line trains were rerouted onto a new, temporary ground-level right-of-way north of the old one between Oak Park and Austin avenues as part of the construction of the new Congress Line. Closing in two phases in mid-September -- westbound first, followed by the eastbound side -- the station was replaced by a temporary stop at Ridgeland Avenue two blocks east. The station was demolished shortly after closing. When the permanent Congress Line right-of-way opened through Oak Park in 1960-61, a new Gunderson station was never constructed, nor was a permanent Ridgeland station built.

Notes:

1. Plachno, Larry. Sunset Lines: The Story of the Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad - 2: History. Transportation Trails, 1990.