Chicago's first railroad depot consisted of a simple wood two-story building in 1848 with a small watchtower. Before the great Chicago fire destroyed it in 1871, the city constructed the Central Depot in 1856 and used it as the main station for 40 years. The newer depot had more architectural style--with etched windows and hand-carved molding--than the earlier one but still lacked the grandeur of the stations yet to come.
Union Station transported 100,000 travelers on 281 trains through its huge terminal during World War II. When it opened in 1925, after a decade of construction at a cost of 75 million, the station boasted the Great Hall or main waiting area with Beaux Arts architecture and 110-foot walls, a vaulted skylight and staircases and connecting lobbies. The movies "The Sting" and "The Untouchables" filmed scenes on its staircase. In 1969, the construction of two new office buildings leveled the concourse. A $30 million renovation in 1991 upgraded the passenger facilities, and by 2010, Union Station was carrying up to 50,000 commuters daily.
Located downtown, and the smallest of Chicago's stations, Grand Central Station opened in 1890 and cost $1 million to build. Constructed of brick and brownstone with 26-foot ceilings and marble floors, the structure's interiors had Roman-style columns, stained-glass windows and a fireplace. A floating foundation with 55-foot-deep piles supported the station in the area's swampy soil. Its glass and steel train shed, more than 550 feet long, accommodated 15 car-trains. By 1912, it only served 40 trains and carried less than 4,000 passengers daily, far below the other stations. It was demolished in 1971.
Dearborn Station was known as the "Hollywood Star Train Station." The Santa Fe Railway ran daily trips from it to California through the 1950s. It was common to see movie elites at Dearborn waiting for the Super Chief and El Capitan trains. Dearborn defied convention when it opened in 1885 with its Romanesque-style contrary to the traditional design. Its 12-story clock tower was visible and was heard for blocks. Pink granite and deep red brick created a powerful structure that served 150 trains a day including the Erie Railroad, the Wabash and the Grand Trunk Railroad lines.
Dearborn stopped serving passengers in 1971, and in the 1980s the station was converted into a commercial office and retail center.
The station that would not die, LaSalle, opened before the Civil War in 1852, then was rebuilt after an 1866 fire. The 1871 Chicago fire destroyed LaSalle again, but in 1903, it reopened. The station featured a 12-story office building and stood in the city's financial hub until 1981. It served almost 200 trains daily including the routes of the 20th Century Limited and Rocket Mountain Rocket, and appeared in Hitchcock's film, "North By Northwest."
Built in 1896, Van Buren Station is the oldest Chicago station still in operation on the Metra Electric Line and the South Shore Line. Van Buren is the main station for trains that go to the center of Chicago's Grant Park. Its four entrances make it easy to accommodate more than 10,000 passengers a day. Paris gave a gift to Chicago in 2001 of a replica of an Art Nouveau Metro entrance that stands outside one of Van Buren's entrances.
Constructed during the Civil War and renovated in 1893, the Randolph Street station grew in importance in 1926 when the train system was electrified. Commuter trains from neighboring areas used the station, and at its peak, trains left twice a minute. Millennium Park began construction in the 1990s with a major renovation to the renamed Millennium Station that completed in 2007. The Millennium is a major commuter rail station in downtown Chicago that transports 22,000 commuters on seven rail lines. It stands as the landmark Chicago train station.
