Preservationists Hoping To Get Façade Of Old Loop Station House Into A Museum
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The decorative façade of the shuttered Wabash/Madison 'L' station, which first opened in 1896, has come down, and preservationists have begun looking for a new home for the structure.
One of the oldest stops in the CTA's elevated system, the Loop station closed in March, to make way for a new state-of-the-art facility under construction on Wabash between Madison and Washington, which also eventually would replace the Randolph and Wabash stop.
Meantime, the façade of the old Madison/Wabash station has been hauled to ReBuilding Exchange, a nonprofit reuse warehouse at 1740 W. Webster Av., where a truck offloaded sections of the old station house on Thursday.
"What we're seeing here is a sort of sandwich, if you will, of wood backing and wood structure, with this decorative metal on top," said Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago, a group dedicated to saving historic buildings in the city.
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The Madison/Wabash station house was listed on Preservation Chicago's list of seven most endangered buildings last year. It was the last original station on the east leg of the Loop to retain its original station house. Most of the others were removed or destroyed in the 1950s.
"It really is a trip back into another age, and it tells a great story of a great city; how it grew, how it handled people, how it moved people," he said.
The façade will go on display at ReBuilding Exchange, and Miller said the hope is to get it into a museum. The Smithsonian already has a recreation of the platform from the same station, as part of the exhibit "America on the Move."
