Dearborn Station (also called, Polk Street Depot) was, beginning in the late 1800s, one of six
intercitytrain stations serving downtown
Chicago,
Illinois. It remained in operation until May 1, 1971. Built in 1883, it is located at Dearborn and Polk Streets, to the south of
the Loop, adjacent to
Printers Row. The station was owned by the
Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad, which itself was owned by the companies operating over its line. The station building headhouse now houses office, retail, and entertainment spaces, and its trackage yard, behind the headhouse, was redeveloped into part of the
Dearborn Park neighborhood.
Description and history
The
Romanesque Revival structure, designed by
Cyrus L. W. Eidlitz, opened in 1885 at a cost of $400 to $500 thousand (equivalent to $13.6 to $17 million in 2024). The three-story building's exterior walls and twelve-story
clock tower were composed of pink granite and red pressed brick topped by a number of steeply-pitched roofs. Modifications to the structure following a fire in 1922 included eliminating the original pitched roof profile. Behind the
head house were the train
platforms, shielded by a large
train shed.[3] Inside the station were
ticket counters, waiting rooms, and
Fred Harvey Company restaurants.[4]
By 1976, Dearborn Station's
train shed was demolished and tracks were removed; the
head house building was retained. The train station stood abandoned into the mid-1980s when it was converted to retail and office space. The former
rail yards were converted for use as
Dearborn Park.
Services
Some of the railroads that served the station include the following, with some of the more well-known name trains listed:
In
blues musician
Henry Thomas' 1927 song "Railroadin' Some", the "Polk Street Depot" is the next to last stop on a journey that begins in
Fort Worth, Texas, and ends in
Chicago.
Dearborn Station is mentioned multiple times in the 1974 "
Adam's Ribs" episode of M*A*S*H, in which
Hawkeye Pierce craves the barbecued ribs from a fictional restaurant adjacent to the station, but can't recall the name. He calls the
station master from
South Korea to get the restaurant's name and phone number. Hawkeye refers to the terminal as the "Dearborn Street Station".
"Dearborn Station" is a song by the
rock band
Fortune that was released in 1985.[8]
Photo Gallery
The north (frontal) and west side
The east side
The south (rear) side
Inside the building
The station's
train shed being demolished in May 1976; the "
head house" can be seen at the rear
A city park, Dearborn Park, and townhouses now occupy the former platform and trackage area
^"Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad".
Official Guide of the Railways. New York City, New York: National Railway Publication Company. Jan 1904. p. 700. Retrieved 9 Jan 2015 – via books.google.com.
^Goss, William Freeman Myrick, Smoke Abatement and Electrification of Railway Terminals in Chicago. Report of the Chicago Association of Commerce, Committee of Investigation on Smoke Abatement and Electrification of Railway Terminals, Chicago Association of Commerce and Industry, 1915, p. 505