Day 142: The Gateway to the City

     On May 16, 1908, a Northwestern Elevated train pulled into a station on Howard Avenue, marking the first entry into northern Chicago/Evanston by the city's rapid transit.  This was made possible by an agreement with the Chicago, Milwaukee, & St. Paul railway for the trains to use the railroad's tracks. Of course, thanks to some delays the station itself did not open up until August 23, 1908. In 1919(while the city was reeling from the race riots that had been aided and abetted by Big Bill Thompson), the station first assumed a duty that it is still renowned for to this day: that of a major transfer station. In that year, the Chicago Elevated Railways changed up routes so that the North-South Route(which counted Bronzeville/35th as a station) ended its route at Howard instead of Evanston, forcing northbound passengers to change trains at Howard. Six years later, the Skokie line was inaugurated, and the Howard station added another tenant(as the Skokie line trains almost always terminated at Howard).  At around this same time, the lines were finally elevated, and so an entirely new station was built at Howard in 1921.  This station featured elegant columns, as well as waiting areas for passengers on the North Shore Line(which also used the Howard station.

     This situation of different transit outfits using the same station would rear its ugly head in a whole new way in 1947, when the Chicago Transit Authority was formed to oversee and consolidate all of the city's elevated transit lines into one organization.  The problem was that there were essentially three different fare structures.  One for those just traveling within the city, one for those traveling up north, and then another one for those traveling from the city to the north.  Since Howard was a northern transfer point in and out of the city, it had to deal with all three types of fares in one single station, which at times made for some interesting platform configurations.  At one point in the 1950s, the station had one track fully devoted to CTA fares and boarding, half of another allocated to the CTA, the other half of that one devoted to the North Shore Line, and a third platform split into three different segments and partitioned for another line.

     Eventually this problem was abated, and today all the lines that use the station are under the auspices of the CTA, thus avoiding all fare confusion.  The legacy of Howard as a transfer point continues to this day, as the station is the main hub between the Red, Yellow, and Purple Lines.