Halsted (4100S/800W)
Halsted Street and Root Street, Canaryville (New City)

Service Notes:

Stock Yards Line

Quick Facts:

Address: TBD
Established: April 8, 1908
Original Line: South Side Elevated Railroad, Stock Yards branch
Previous Names: none
Skip-Stop Type: n/a
Rebuilt: n/a
Status: Demolished

History:

Halsted was one of only two stations on the Stock Yards branch located outside the Stock Yards. The line was built specifically to carry workers from their South Side homes to the Yards. It was never intended to reach the Loop; instead it was built to run shuttles to the Indiana Avenue station, which is just about all that even ran on the line, although some services sporadically also ran north of Indiana and south to the Jackson Park branch.

The facility at Halsted consisted of a grade-level station house on the west side of the street, with stairs from the rear of the building leading to dual side boarding platforms at the elevated track level. The station house resembled the headhouse designed by architect Earl Nielson at Racine, as well as other South Side stations of the same era at 42nd Place, Halsted/63rd, and 69th. The station house was constructed of brick, which an articulated cornice, triglyphs and pilasters, giving it a Greek Revival influence similar to the aforementioned stations. Halsted's wood-decked side platforms were each covered by a peaked-roof canopy of steel supports down the middle of the platform with a gently-curved bracket and intricate latticework supporting a hipped corrugated metal roof.

By the mid-1950s, it was becoming apparent that falling ridership and increasing deterioration of the Stock Yards branch and its cousin, the Kenwood branch, would require some sort of immediate action. Three plans were formulated for how to continue service -- purchasing the route from the Chicago Junction Railway (from whom CTA rented the property), continue to lease it from the CJRwy, or purchase of the property by an outside agency for CTA use -- but all of these included modernization of the Halsted station. As part of a $3,100 modernization plan covering both the Kenwood and Stock Yards lines, drawings dated July 11, 1956 show that Halsted would have had its station house removed. A smaller space formally occupied by the station would have been black-topped with a drip pan installed overhead on the elevated structure . High fencing was to be installed around the new fare collection area, leading to the existing dual staircases up to the station platforms. A two-position agents booth, "fare-o-mat" turnstiles, and transfer issuing machines were to be provided. In all, it would have probably looked similar to the chain link "stations" that were once present at Indiana, Wellington, and Hoyne stations, and still today at Lawrence station.

Other factors, however, would seal the Stock Yards branch's fate. Due to changes in the meat packing industry, the Union Stock Yards became redundant and outdated, and was closed. Now with its main purpose gone, the Stock Yards branch followed suit, ending "L" service October 7, 1957.

Halsted station is seen in August 1956. A 4000-series train, by this time in the green-and-cream livery they would serve out their remaining years in, is berthed in the station -- these cars were once again specially assigned to the branch for convention duty, with the Democratic Convention again being held a block south at the International Amphitheater. For a larger view, click here. (William C. Janssen photo, courtesy of the Krambles-Peterson Archive)

halsted01.jpg (147k) A fire in the Stock Yards in May 1934 consumed everything in its path, including a two-car train trapped west of Halsted, whose platform railing can be seen in the lower left corner.(Photo from the Krambles-Peterson Archive)