With the recent demolition of the 115th Street Railroad Station, it is time once again to revisit the historic and architectural importance of Beverly-Morgan Park’s railroad stations. Commuters who pass by daily do not realize that almost all of the Beverly–Morgan Park’s earliest historic commercial buildings surround the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad tracks.[i] Seven anchoring railroad stations in picturesque styles once served as loci for “Main Streets” in the principally residential community. In many residential railroad suburbs of Chicago, commercial districts developed adjacent to commuter stations and tracks. Built over time, these traditional commercial districts usually represent buildings from the earliest period of community development through the current era. While most historic suburban communities in Chicago have one central business district around their railroad station, the multiple commercial areas found a half mile apart at 91st, 95th, 99th, 103rd, 107th, 111th, and 115th Streets are unique. At the rails in Beverly–Morgan Park are walkable, compact cores of historic storefronts, each developed to serve commuters who traveled to and from Chicago’s Loop. Every depot was individually named, evoking romantic charm or connecting with historic figures and places. However, in 1926 the railroad unified the stations under each neighborhood name (Beverly or Morgan Park), distinguished only by mundane numeric street names where depots were located.
Today, five of the seven historic railroad depots remain as neighborhood icons. While other stations in former railroad suburbs in Chicago were demolished and rebuilt on embankments for traffic relief, this at-grade grouping is unique. Commuter railroad stations in Beverly–Morgan Park are distinctive examples of nineteenth- and twentieth-century depots in Chicago’s suburbs. Built between 1889 and 1945, the historic stations in Beverly–Morgan Park are fashionable and reflect the materials, scale, and architectural trends of the era. They too are functional, typically housing a ticket office, a waiting room, and exterior canopies to shelter passengers. Large expanses of windows are standard, including projecting bay windows to view incoming trains. Fueled by a desirable image, community leaders wanted improved and architecturally impressive train stations. New C.R.I. & P. R. R. commuter train stations, with the latest conveniences complete with waiting room and baggage room, were designed. They are rare, visual reminders of the community’s suburban and railroad history. Beverly–Morgan Park’s railroad stations, now a local historic district, are a fabulous collection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century transportation landmarks of great interest to rail fans and historians across the country.
Surrounding the depots are inviting natural and designed landscapes that greet commuters and visitors who pass by the community daily. Beginning in the early twentieth century in Beverly–Morgan Park, community groups recognized the importance of the railroad station districts as community centers and places of civic pride. By then, the City Beautiful movement in urban planning had gained significant momentum in Chicago and had led to planned efforts at the community level to improve aesthetics. Groups such as the Beverly Improvement Association and the Civic Improvement Committee of the Beverly Hills Woman’s Club studied, envisioned, and then implemented programs to beautify neighborhood landscapes, especially those around each depot. Enhancements such as public parks, tree and shrub planting programs, and the introduction of landscape elements created a stunning natural backdrop at the depots that still remains today. The Civic Association of the Beverly Hills Woman’s Club executed one of the community’s most ambitious beautification projects between 1924 and 1934. According to a report submitted by the chairman of this committee, Blanche M. Buttles, the committee believed “our five Rock Island Suburban station grounds presented the greatest need for civic pride.”[ii] Using funds raised through the Woman’s Club’s annual flower show, they beautified the grounds around five railroad stations in Beverly–Morgan Park. Blanche Buttles’s successes in landscape beautification led to a position as horticulturalist of the Rock Island Railroad Suburban Line.[iii]
Around each railroad station in Beverly–Morgan Park are traditional, small-town business districts with pedestrian-oriented commercial buildings densely clustered on small blocks. Although they vary in size and density, the railroad commercial districts are compact and wholly commercial in character. Historically serving the residents of the immediate community, businesses in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries often included retailers and service-oriented businesses such as bakeries, beauty shops, butcher shops, cleaners, drug stores, dry goods stores, funeral homes, groceries and markets, jewelers, plumbing shops, variety stores, and professionals such as doctors and dentists. Most of these businesses were individual or family-run operations in single-storefront buildings, sometimes with second-floor living quarters or storage. The businesses were pedestrian-oriented, attracting customers walking often to and from the train station. Additionally, these businesses were place where shopkeepers typically knew their customers’ names.
Typical patterns of development in late-nineteenth-century Chicago railroad suburbs follow either a linear commercial configuration, where commercial buildings are on a street or streets that parallel the tracks, or in a T-shaped or perpendicular configuration, where buildings are on a street that intersects the tracks. Both types, which expand outward from the commuter rail stations, are found in Beverly–Morgan Park in varying sizes. Ninety-First Street’s commercial core developed in a linear fashion, 95th Street in a traditional T or perpendicular configuration, 99th Street in both a linear and perpendicular development, 103rd Street as a perpendicular business district, 107th Street and 111th Street as both; and 115th Street a perpendicular or T-shaped commercial core.
The commercial architecture along the rails is generally situated in an orthogonal street grid pattern on a north-south—east-west axis. These commercial areas were originally platted on the grid in very narrow, long, rectangular lots suitable for lot-line to lot-line commercial structures. General characteristics of these commercial cores include a street wall of structures built up to the front and side property lines with party walls; sidewalks with street trees; curbs and gutters; and on-street parallel parking. Today, asphalt-paved, pay-as-you-go parking lots also hug the railroad tracks at many of the Metra–Rock Island stations. A very small number of historic homes near the railroad stations are part of the commercial district, having been converted to commercial office space but retaining the home’s residential appearance.
The stylistic features and integrity of many of the older structures in Beverly–Morgan Park’s commercial districts are generally good. Alterations to storefronts sometimes involve overall material replacement. The upper stories on some of the more notable buildings have window replacement and infill. Nevertheless, distinctive cornices and handsome window surrounds on many of the buildings give the areas a sweeping and visually appealing historic character.
[i] Today, the commuter line is known as the Metra–Rock Island.
[ii] Buttles, Mrs. Ben E., Beverly Hills Woman’s Club of Chicago. “Song of Songs.” An unpublished manuscript dated January 23, 1939, in the Collections of the Ridge Historical Society.
[iii] Ibid.
115TH Street—Raymond Station
The last railroad stop in Morgan Park before reaching the city’s southern limits is at 115th Street, where the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (C.R.I. & P.R.R.) built a 22′ x 50′ frame passenger station at 11449 South Hale in 1891.[i] Known historically as the Raymond Station, this two-story depot with a simple rectangular plan is one of the area’s most unassuming designs. Although spare in detailing, it is not without visual interest. Its steeply pitched hipped roof, punctuated by dormers of varying roof lines on all four sides, gracefully curves outward with its flared, deep eaves, which shelter passengers. Curving lines also smooth the depot’s four corners, where exterior frame materials fluidly wrap each corner. The fluidity of the design and its steep roof are reminiscent of the Shingle style from the last two decades of the nineteenth century. Although the station’s architect is unknown, it was built by contractor Porter J. Walker[ii] for $3,600, financed by Village of Morgan Park residents ($2,700) and the C.R.I. & P.R.R. ($900).[iii]
Sadly, the station burned in June 2017 and demolished by Metra shortly after.
Although many of the train stations in Beverly–Morgan Park are surrounded by small-scale commercial districts, very few commercial buildings are at 115th Street. Just across the tracks from the station, at the northeast corner of 115th Street and Hale, is a Two Part Commercial Block at 1952–54 West 115th Street. Built in 1928–29 for owners Viking and Lindholm, it was designed by architect Roy Walter Stott.[iv] This yellow brick corner building built with storefronts and apartments above hints at Italian Renaissance Revival in its ornamental detailing. Like other railroad station storefront buildings, the Viking and Lindholm Stores once housed locally owned businesses that served commuters who used the station at 115th Street. At one time, businesses here included a delicatessen and a Service Drug Store. Two other brick commercial buildings representing early- to mid-twentieth-century businesses at the tracks include a One Part Commercial Block at 2010–12 West 115th Street and a Two Part Commercial Block at 1920 West 115th Street, neither of which is now used for retailing.
The tradition of landscaped open space around passenger stations continued at 115th Street, but many decades after the Village of Morgan Park was annexed to Chicago. The Chicago Park District established Blackwelder Park in 1974, creating another town common across from the depot.
[i] Twelfth Annual Report of the Directors to the Stockholders of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway Company. April 1, 1892, p. 10. Also “Substantial Improvements at Morgan Park.” The Economist. November 7, 1891, p. 780.
[ii] Herriott, David. “Reminiscences of Early Days in Morgan Park and The Ridge: Paper No. 27.” The Beverly Review. December 7, 1939. Bob White Files AB-16, Collections of the Ridge Historical Society, Chicago.
[iii] Ibid.
[iv] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit No. 28836, October 8, 1928, Ledger Book South 45, p. 380. Two-story brick store, apartments and garage, 35x62x30 and 20x20x12, Cost $20,000.