Grand station (CTA North Side Main Line)

Grand was a station on the Chicago Transit Authority's North Side Main Line, which is now part of the Brown Line. The station was located at Grand Avenue and Franklin Street in the Near North Side neighborhood of Chicago. Grand was situated south of Chicago and north of Merchandise Mart. Grand opened in 1921 to replace the Kinzie station and closed on September 20, 1970, due to low ridership.[1]

GRAND
 
500N
200W
Former Chicago 'L' rapid transit station
General information
LocationGrand Avenue and Franklin Street
Chicago, Illinois
Coordinates41°53′30″N 87°38′08″W / 41.89155°N 87.63555°W / 41.89155; -87.63555
Owned byChicago Transit Authority
Line(s)North Side Main Line
Platforms2 side platforms
Tracks2 tracks
Construction
Structure typeElevated
History
Opened1921; 103 years ago (1921)
ClosedSeptember 20, 1970; 54 years ago (1970-09-20)
Former services
Preceding station Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad Following station
Chicago Avenue
toward Milwaukee
North Shore Line Merchandise Mart
Preceding station Chicago "L" Following station
Chicago
toward Howard
North Side main line Merchandise Mart
Location
Map

Station details

edit

Operations and connections

edit

In 1921, Grand Avenue had a streetcar service from either Harlem Avenue or Western Avenue (cars alternated between them) in the west to Navy Pier in the east.[2] By 1928, this route had owl service between 1 and 5 a.m., wherein cars ran once every thirty minutes;[3] during the day, streetcar lines in Chicago typically had intervals of between eight and fifteen minutes per car.[4] Service was cut back from Navy Pier on September 28, 1941.[2] Buses began supplementing streetcar service to serve the Grand stations on the North Side Main Line and on the State Street Subway and relieve streetcar congestion, the service was extended to the entirety of the route on December 4, 1949; buses would replace streetcars altogether on April 1, 1951.[5] Trains ran on the Grand Avenue tracks on occasion – motor-trailer trains ran between July 13, 1922, and May 4, 1923, and multiple-unit trains ran between November 18, 1926, and January 3, 1928.[5]

References

edit
  1. ^ Garfield, Graham. "Grand". Chicago-L.org. Retrieved January 23, 2010.
  2. ^ a b Lind 1974, p. 258
  3. ^ Lind 1974, p. 202
  4. ^ Lind 1974, p. 201
  5. ^ a b Lind 1974, p. 259

Works cited

edit
  • Lind, Alan R. (1974). Chicago Surface Lines: An Illustrated History. Park Forest, Illinois: Transport History Press.