Friday, September 22, 2017

NYC/LS&MS Freight Houses

(Satellite)


MWRD posted
A view of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway freight sheds near the South Branch of the Chicago River between Adams St and Jackson Blvd on April 27, 1904.
MWRD posted again

Since the MWRD location seemed wrong, I shared the posting with the Chicago Railroad Historians. It is the location that is wrong. David Daruszka provided information concerning the correct location. From his Sanborn Maps copied below, I learned that the horse&wagons are on La Salle Street. In this block,  La Salle wasn't much more than an alley full of horses and wagons delivering freight to be shipped to other destinations. Not only is the freight house on the left (West) a LS&MS outbound freight house, the building on the right is also an outbound freight house. Note in the right-background you can see the two-story office part of the freight house, whcih is confirmed by the Sanborn Map. In the background we also see the head house of the La Salle Street Station.

Bill Molony posted
La Salle Street Station was located on Van Buren Street between La Salle Street and Sherman Street. 
It was completed in 1903 and was demolished in 1981.
It was the Chicago terminal for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, the New York Central Railroad, and the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad (a.k.a. the Nickel Plate Road).
Passenger trains of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad used La Salle Street Station from July of 1904 until August of 1913, when they were moved back to Dearborn Station.


David Daruszka commented on the share
The freight houses were located on either side of LaSalle Street between Polk and Taylor Streets. Here's the west side of LaSalle.

David Daruszka commented on the share
Here's the east side.
In this old aerial photo, Polk is along the top, remnants of Taylor is along the bottom, Sherman is on the left and Clark is on the right. The red line is La Salle Street. The little building in the lower-right corner of the aerial was the LS&MS inbound freight house. As is typical in downtown Chicago, the inbound freight house is small because the freight is not sorted in the building, all of it is simply transported to a freight forwarder.

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP
The red line is La Salle Street

As an opportunity to learn what kind of railroad details were included in the Smoke Abatement Report maps, I include their map.Unfortunately, the scan resolution makes it hard to read the text on the buildings. But I do see rectangles indicating the location of the freight houses. The haze in the MWRD photo indicates why coal smoke was such an issue in the downtown area at the beginning of the 20th Century.

1915 Smoke Abatement Report



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