Day 114: Bronzeville's Station

     In the buildup to the 1893 World's Fair, the first rapid transit line in the history of Chicago was commissioned, the South Side Rapid Transit.  There were ten stops on that line, one of which we've already talked about.  Today we will be taking a look at the station at 35th Street.  When the stop was originally opened in 1892, it was located at the same level as the trains running by(aka: grade level), but that was changed in 1907, when the state passed an ordinance mandating the elevation of all station facilities in order to allow for expansion of the tracks.  In 1949, the station was renamed to denote its location next to the Illinois Institute of Technology.  In October 1962, the station was gutted by a massive fire.  Later on, the station was completely rebuilt, and the new station opened up in mid-1965.

     Ever since 1901, the station had seen a considerable amount of business whenever the White Sox played in town, since that stop was the closest El station to the ballpark.  A lot of the crowding was eliminated in 1969, when the new 35th St. stop opened on the Red Line, right across the street from Comiskey Park.  Now mind you, this wasn't a bad thing, it was actually good for all parties involved.  The CTA got another station out of the deal, the fans were able to use a station located a stones throw from their ballpark, and the 35th-Tech station stopped getting so overcrowded on game days.

     In 1993, the South Side service was realigned with the Lake Street Service up north and became known as the Green Line.  At that time, the station was also renamed to 35th-Bronzeville-IIT to pay homage to the Bronzeville neighborhood(and former stomping grounds of Two-Gun Pete) that it was located in.  However, that was not the last time that the 35th-Tech station would see a train headed to Howard.  In 2013, the CTA embarked on a bold plan to shut down the southern portion of the Red Line for 5 months to completely rehab the tracks.  As part of this shutdown, northbound Red Line trains were shifted over to the 35th-Tech stop, thus bringing Howard-bound service back to the station(albeit temporarily) for the first time in 20 years.