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| Proviso West High School posted A fantastic bird's eye of the old Hillside Quarry which was located at Mannheim Road and 290. This photo is from around 1980. "Although farming was the major occupation in the 1850s, Marion Covell discovered a large deposit of limestone just a few feet below the surface of his property. The quarry that he began in 1854 continued to operate until the mid-1970s, supplying crushed stone for road-building throughout the Chicago region. Against the wishes of most village residents, the quarry was acquired by the John Sexton Company in 1979 and used as a sanitary landfill." John Ryan: Is this now a landfill?Proviso West High School: It was covered in 2008 per this Tribune article. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2007-04-13-0704120601-story.html Proviso West High School shared Hillside quarry Stephen Belcher: In the summer of 1962, I was employed at what I remember as Consumers Concrete and Gravel that ran this facility. We did ready mix concrete and road gravel. I was in quality control to make sure the gravel met specifications and that the concrete had the proper mixture of air. At that time there was an expansion at O'Hare and our gravel was loaded from here and taken to form the basis of runways and taxiways. And always liked that little bridge with train tracks which crossed the Congress there....and breakfast at the bowling alley....lol Joe Newman: And, boy did that landfill STINK! Thom Techman: Joe Newman It was Horrible, wasn’t it ? It didn’t matter if you kept your car windows closed, it still got in. Ardens Acres: They use to sound a siren everyday before they set off dynamite Jim Vondrak: I remember in the late 60's that on Fridays at around 3:00, the school would shake because they were blasting at the quarry. [There are several more comments about the smell and the bangs. And a boy who died when he fell in while chasing rabbits under the fence in the late 1960s.] |
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| 3D Satellite |
The Illinois Central had a branch that went North between the quarry and Mannheim Road. It joined the right-of-way of the CA&E Branch to continue north to connect with the Chicago Great Western Railway. In addition to this topo map, I used the 2005 SPV Map to confirm the route of this IC branch. I don't know the official name of the branch.
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| 1953 Elmhurst and Hillside Quads @ 24,000 |
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| 1927 Hinsdale and 1928 Elmhurst Quads @ 24,000 via Dennis DeBruler |
The Cook County branch to Mt. Carmel Cemetery was built by the Chicago Aurora and Elgin RR when it was the Aurora Elgin and Chicago RR (it's the Illinois Prairie Path now). It left their main line and curved south, you can see a ghost at Manheim and Warren Ave. in Bellwood. It crossed Mannheim Rd. about Madison St. and ran down it's West side past the quarry. Stephen Belcher's "little bridge with train tracks" was for the branch when they built the Congress St./Eisenhower Expressway. USGS shows it still in place in 1997 but not 2012 (looks like a realignment of the expressway ramps). Does anybody know if the tracks were ever used? South of Harrison St. the branch curved west and ran down the north side of Roosevelt Rd. You can see a ghost underpass south of the Petco in that mall, then the ghost curves west between the IDOT yard and Palumbo/Orange Crush. Farther west on Roosevelt Rd., just west of Fencl Lane, you can see a ghost curving north (into when built) Mt. Carmel Cemetery (lots of weekend traffic).
ReplyDeleteWhen the CA&E ended freight service in 1961 the Indiana Harbor Belt RR operated then bought the branch. I don't know how they connected, maybe the Chicago Great Western RR? The IC made a connection farther south, just northwest of the ghost underpass behind the Petco. The IC apparently used some of the middle until 1986.
The Westchester Branch, which started about the same place, ran south to Cermak/22nd St. It was an entirely different line, operated by the CRT/CTA from 1925 to 1951.
From The Story of the Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad (Vol.1) by Larry Plachno ISBN 0-933449-02-X (v. 1) and The Great Third Rail by CERA (Bulletin 105) no ISBN?
Covell's quarry has been around since 1854, when Marion complained about farming rocks. An army engineer checked it out and told him it was limestone. Lime was used as fertilizer so Marion charged farmers fifty cents to load up their own wagons. But limestone makes good gravel for roads, too, so Marion started blasting and in 1888 formed The Proviso Stone and Gravel Company.
DeleteSince 1920 it has been O'Laughlin, Consumer's, Vulcan, and the Hillside Stone Company. They gave up on mining it (it was 300 feet deep) and sold it to Com Ed in 1976. Com Ed made a mistake and didn't need it so they sold it to John Sexton (in partnership with BFI) in 1980. That's when it became a garbage dump. It closed in 2008 but the story's not done yet.
The Congress Development Company Landfill (aka Congress, Hillside, and Mannheim at different times) is still a mess. The stink got so bad around 2005-2006 that the state started issuing consent decrees. Install, repair, cover, monitor, satellites show the east half was largely green by 2015 but the west half is still a mess in 2023. There was a class-action lawsuit, in 2022 checks for "the largest Landfill odor nuisance settlement in US history" (lawyers bragging) started to go out.
It's zoned M1 "Office and restricted industrial district".
Thanks for the correction. I changed "CTA Westchester" to "CA&E". I also added the 1920s topo map that shows both branches. The CTA took over the operation of the eastern branch, which was extended down to Cermak Road.
DeleteThis quarry has one of the best laid out aerial photos of all time, a 1938 shot at the University of Illinois: ( https://clearinghouse.isgs.illinois.edu/webdocs/ilhap/county/data/cook/flight11/0bwq08033.jpg ) or ( https://clearinghouse.isgs.illinois.edu/webdocs/ilhap/county/data/cook/flight11/0bwq08033.tif ). The basic layout will show on today's maps and satellites, but it won't be as cool.
ReplyDeleteThe (limestone) quarry, above center, is so white that you can't see the rail yard. The N/S road on the east side is Mannheim Rd. One mile east, right by the edge of the photo, is 25th Ave., one mile west is Wolf Rd. The E/W road on the south side of the quarry is Harrison St., the expressway goes through there now. The diagonal across the top is Butterfield Rd., the E/W street through the middle is 12th St./Roosevelt Rd., and 22nd St./Cermak Rd. runs along the bottom.
The Chicago Aurora and Elgin two-track (electrified third rail) main line runs E/W across the top. The Chicago Great Western has a two-track mainline next to it on the north side. The Illinois Central mainline runs at a diagonal south of the quarry and the Indiana Harbor Belt runs N/S along the right side of the photo. The CA&E Westchester branch is just east of Mannheim Rd. (It is only rapid transit but is clear to see and was originally designed as a mainline, so why not put it here?)
Now to the branches. Going north from the quarry the IHB goes next (on the west side) to the CA&E, which is a roadside trolley on the west side of Mannheim Rd. there. (There were IHB customers north of the quarry later). The two lines cross to the east side of Mannheim Rd. around Madison St. (not marked) and separate. The CA&E makes a sharp right (east) curve to run along their mainline. The IHB makes a wider right (east) curve, crosses the CA&E main-line at grade, and goes east. I don't see how the tracks align, but further east a wooden ramp goes up between the two mainlines. A concrete bridge curves right (south) across the CA&E mainline and conectes with the IHB N/S mainline. The abandoned bridge still shows on Google in 2023.
Going south from the quarry the IC goes southwest, does some switching, and curves west to join their mainline. It looks like the IC could run-through to the IHB but I don't know.
Going past the quarry is the CA&E trolley line. They connect with the quarry but I wouldn't expect much. South of the quarry they switch by the IC before going under it and wandering off west to their cemeteries.
The Congress St./Eisenhower Expressway was built in the 1950s, cutting off the IC and south CA&E from the quarry. The CA&E was realigned over the new little bridge with the tracks to switch down by the IC. In 1959 the CA&E failed and the IHB took over, using the little bridge until 1986. Satellites show that the little bridge was torn down between 1998 and 2002.
The IC was cut off, too. They continued switching south of the expressway and connected with the ex-CA&E tracks so they may have been able to used the little bridge, too. They ended service before 1986.
Where do the branch tracks go today? Nowhere, there's nothing left except a few of CA&E ghosts (they left them everywhere) and an abandoned IHB concrete bridge.
I think.
Oops: The aerial photos come from here:( https://prairie-research.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=a251e0a92bd84f978e46a0b2f3b5a50f ). The CA&E (both branches) are here:( https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/2023/03/cta-westchester-branch-and-ca-cemetery.html ) The IHB east of Manheim Rd. is here:( https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/2016/07/bellwood-tower-cgw-vs-ihb.html#comment-form ). Jon and Jerry's map near the bottom shows O'Laughlin Quarry as sort of a side-note. The CA&E books talk about the IHB, who bought the branch, but barely mention the IC. The USGS map looks good in 1953 but the 1963 one, drawn new after the expressway, is wrong. 1997 still shows IC track so I don't believe any of it.
DeleteMy father had a drilling and blasting company in the 1970’s. As a teenager I would go to work with him at many quarries in the northern Illinois area. Hillside Stone was one of my favorites (due to how deep it was) and always wondered how that particular quarry could exist in such an urban location. Thanks for all the history.
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