Day 168: UIC/Halsted

     In 1895, the Metropolitan West Side El erected a station at Halsted Street in Greektown. However, the station was demolished in the 1950s to allow for the construction of the Congress Superhighway(aka the Eisenhower Expressway), which had first been announced at the 1950 Chicago Auto Show. This building project allowed the CTA to embark upon an ambitious new plan: putting a grade-level track in the median of a highway. One facet of the planning that came into contention was the spacing of the stations along the line. The aldermen wanted more stations along the line, while CTA planners wanted more spaced out stations with bus service to augment the difference. Ultimately, a compromise was reached.

     In February of 1965, the University of Illinois opened up a campus in Chicago(which we know of today as UIC), which changed the mission of the station dramatically. To accommodate for the fact that the station now served more students than any other group, an alternate entrance was constructed at Peoria Street. Through the 90s, not much changed, and Peoria was still a part-time entrance. However, in 1995, the station's entrance hours ere expanded as part of a pilot program that wound up being quite successful. In 2000, the station was adopted by the local community and received several new murals painted by Gallery 37 students.

     In April of 2000, the entrance off of Morgan Street was closed for five months in order to make the station more handicapped accessible. The result of this renovation was a much better facility for those with accessible needs and a ramp that was up to standards, as well as new ticket vending machines for the entrance. Over the course of the next year, the same process was repeated on the other two entrances so that they were all accessible. At the same time, renovations were going on at the Peoria entrance. At the end of it, Peoria had new signs and everything. Another quirk of the Peoria entrance is that it features one of the few head houses where commuters  wait inside for the trains.  Later on, the station changed yet again when it received new and updated indicator signs.