Lombard (200W/100S)
Lombard Avenue and South Blvd., Village of Oak Park

Service Notes:

Lake Street Division

Quick Facts:

Address: TBD
Established: January 25, 1901
Original Line: Lake Street Elevated Railroad
Previous Names: none
Skip-Stop Type: n/a
Rebuilt: n/a
Status: Demolished

History:

Lombard Avenue station on South Boulevard was built as part of the Lake Street Elevated's 1899 extension along South Boulevard from Austin Avenue to Lombard and Randolph, thence westward along the electrified tracks of the Suburban Railroad on Randolph Street to Wisconsin (Marion) Avenue.

The stations on this portion consisted of island stations and platforms constructed of wood. The narrow station houses with their clapboard paneling and peaked roofs with overhanging eaves emptied out onto an island platform covered by a peaked canopy that was actually a continuation of the station house's roof. The tall steel poles that carried the "L"'s overhead whites occasionally poked through the canopy, interrupting the platform.

Utilizing the overhead trolley wire for safety purposes due to grade-level running, this situation began to cause a number of crossing accidents (usually not the trains' fault), especially when the parallel Chicago & North Western RR elevated their right-of-way, creating a blind corner.

Lombard station was closed in 1948 when the CTA^® revamped service on the Lake Street Line -- the first of a series of line-by-line service overhauls -- by closing 10 little-used stations and implementing A/B skip-stop service to speed up trains on the route. The station was subsequently demolished.