A couple of days ago I was cruisin’ through some southside neighborhoods in Elmhurst, Ill. when I found something that set this old traction phreaque’s heart a-flutter. What I saw was this: a very old looking, orange-beige colored brick building with some porcelain block decorations affixed to the masonry. The design of that building just screamed “electric railroad substation” to me. Immediately north of the building I saw an outdoor, somewhat small, electric utility substation and electrical circuits switching yard with an assortment of transformers and equipment racks that looked to be many decades old. The front of the building had a wooden sign affixed near the roofline identifying its apparent owner: Commonwealth Edison.
Located at 135-A East Valette St., Elmhurst, IL 60126, it’s sited close to a segment of the Illinois Prarie Path.
Pray tell, anyone, was I looking at what was once a Chicago, Aurora, and Elgin substation?
You just might have something there. OTOH, it may have post-dated the railroad. It’s not listed on the CAE Wikipedia listing, though that doesn’t necessarily mean anything.
That building is most assuredly a CA&E substation. The CA&E right-of-way is just to the north of (behind) it, looking suspiciously like a bike path, the Illinois Prairie Path.
Had you ventured across Illinois 83 to Villa Park, the next suburb west, you would have found not one, but two former CA&E station buildings extant, and well preserved.
I know of the building you are describing… It looks almost like a small church. I figured years ago, despite “Commonwealth Edison” on the building that it had to do with the old CA&E…
Speaking of that old electric railroad, my brother has a series of books (3 I think), detailing the history of the CA&E, and it has many pictures of the Villa Park, Elmhurst, Berkely, Hillside area from the early part of the 20th century. There is even a couple of photos of the CA&E switching out the old Ovaltine Factory in Villa Park. The Illinois Prairie Path bridge over the UP in Wheaton is the old CA&E bridge, and I remember being told that the location of the 2 high rise apartment buildings near down town Wheaton, was the site of some old CA&E facilities (a car barn, and perhaps some maintenance shops?? Something like that) And one last thing… just east of Grace Ave in Lombard, one can see the remains of the old C&GW bridge that crossed over the then C&NW (now UP, of course) That place makes a good spot for photograpy as well.
Also, thinking about the CA&E and had it remained in service, makes a great “what if” to think about…
One problem with the decline and abandonment of CA&E was that it occurred prior to the onset of subsidization of public transit. Lots of people wanted to preserve the service but nobody was willing to be taxed to help pay for it. The well-known proposal by CTA for a Forest Park-Wheaton light-rail service was probably meant more to appease the critics than anything else since it didn’t include a funding mechanism and Du Page county political leaders were resistant to anything that brought the CTA onto their turf.
I was out and about yesterday, and got some photos of the old substation. It is on Valette Avenue, about 2 blocks east of York Rd. When I first saw the building back in my youth, I thought it was a small chapel, or something. It was back in high school when my brother and I came to the conclusion as to what it originally was. I had forgotten about this little piece of history, until I saw this thread, so I though I would photograph it. I also got the the old CGW depot which is just to the north of this building.
Now, here is the old C&GW depot, it is about, oh, 100 yards (or less) north of this substation, it is about 150 feet east of York Rd. The plaque on the building states it was built in 1887 for the Minnesota and Northern railway, the first railroad to come through Elmhurst.
Then finally, this old building, which, by it’s location would have been “across the tracks” from the C&GW depot, but along side the old CA&E right of way. After inspecting the building it looks old enough to be from that era. The five or six windows on the north wall in the photograph had been bricked over at one time or another in the past. I used to frequent this area very often in my youth, and that building was always there. It has been used by the Elmhurst Park District as a storage shed, but with the truss roof, and general appearance, it looks like it could have been a maintenance shed for either railroad, or something. In addition there are overhe
Yes, CShaveRR, and thank you. I did find both the Villa Park and Ardmore station buildings that were once part of the C.A.& E. network. Very handsome structures indeed!
The first railroad to go through Elmhurst was the Galena & Chicago Union, in 1849. I’d have to dig to find whether 1887 is the date when this line was built (I’ve always considered the CGW to be a “Johnny-come-lately”), but I wouldn’t be surprised if the IC line (now CN) also came ahead of it. I can’t imagine where they got the idea that it was first.
I also seem to remember that the depot there had been moved from another spot (it may have only been a matter of a few feet, away from right-of-way).
Nice pictures, though–I was through there on my bike a little after 3:00 Friday afternoon, headed home from work on the Prairie Path.
I vaguely remember the whole depot thing, so I don’t remember if it had been moved or not. I do kind of remember that signal that is there as being moved from somewhere else. The plaque said that it was the first railroad through Elmhurst…unless I confused that one with the plaque that I read on Elmhurst’s METRA station… I’ll have to go and look…
Okay, I stand corrected. The original railroad to run through that area was the Minnesota and Northwestern, starting in 1887, but the plaque said nothing about it being the first railroad. I got the two plaques confused. My bad[#oops]
The depot plaque said that the depot and the right of way was purchased in 1971 and dedicated in 1976, on July 5th.
