Day 79: Books, Buses, and Bars. What more do you need?

     Say you've put in a long day studying at the Harold Washington Library and you want to get home.  Or you've been taking in the sights of Pritzker Park(with a little reminiscing about that old giant eye) and decide to hop on the El.  Or maybe you're on the Red Line and you need to transfer to the elevated.  You can do all of those things-and more-from the State/Van Buren Elevated station.

     There have actually been two different stations at State/Van Buren, one of which was constructed in 1897 and closed in 1973, and one that opened in 1997 and remains open to this day.  In 1895, all sides of the Loop were connected to the system--except for the stretch on Van Buren Street.  That was changed with the construction of the stations along Van Buren, and as a consequence, the entire Loop became fully traversable via train car on October 3, 1897.  Throughout the years, the station underwent the usual amount of renovations, service changes, etc...  In 1965, the station became the first CTA Station to provide a direct connection into an adjacent building. Since then this pattern has been duplicated many times(Just two examples, the Clark/Lake Station connecting into the Thompson Center, and the Lake station going into Marshall Fields)  Another historical point to note is the fact that the station was just the second station in the system to get escalators at the station(the first being State/Lake)  By the 1970s, the CTA was going though a period of cost-cutting and restructuring, and the State/Van Buren station was eased out of the picture, and was closed in 1973.  For the next 24 years, there was no train service to that location.

     Then the Harold Washington Library opened up in 1991, and there were changes planned to that.  Finally, in 1997, the new station opened up.  The new station was designed to architecturally match up with the Library, which meant a lot of red brick and green steel.  The station also includes a transfer point to the Jackson stop(as well as several CTA buses on State Street).  Not only all that, but there's also a rooftop bar located just across Pritzker Park from the station(it's actually visible from the platform).  So next time you feel like reading, resting, or just tying one off with the friends, Harold Washington Library State/Van Buren is the stop for you.