Marshfield station

Plans for Chicago to have a subway system to relieve the severe congestion of, if not replace, its elevated trackage dated back to the early 20th century, but the city lagged in building subways.[23] Chicago petitioned the Public Works Administration (PWA) for construction funds for a subway on State Street in 1937.[24] The petition originally included a proposal for two downtown east-west streetcar tunnels.[25] Harold L. Ickes, the administrator of the PWA and a longtime Chicagoan, vetoed the streetcar tunnel plan and insisted instead on a Milwaukee-Dearborn subway that would provide a more direct route from Logan Square to downtown.[25] Although this idea engendered considerable local opposition, especially from mayor Edward Joseph Kelly, Ickes's influence in the federal government led to the Dearborn plan being adopted in 1938.[25] A 1939 plan also introduced the idea of replacing the main line and Garfield Park branch with a section of rapid transit operating through a superhighway (the eventual Interstate 290 or "Eisenhower") on Congress Street that had been proposed since the 1909 Plan of Chicago and more thoroughly planned in the early 1930s.[26][27] These sections of transit would be connected, allowing for the northwest side's rapid transit to be routed through downtown rather than adhere to a trunk-and-branch model.[28] Work soon began on the subway, which was 82 percent complete when World War II forced its suspension in 1942. It finally opened on February 25, 1951, rerouting Logan Square and Humboldt Park trains from Marshfield Junction.[lower-alpha 3][30]

Construction on the expressway and Congress Line, on the other hand, had not started even though it had been adopted by the City Council in 1940 and formally authorized for construction in 1946.[31] Clearance of the right of way began in 1949 and was largely complete by 1952.[27] Three different agreements were made between the CTA, Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois between 1951 and 1954 concerning the financing and ownership of the new construction, which soon commenced.[31] Changes were made to the Garfield Park and Douglas Park lines on December 9, 1951. Several stations were closed, primarily on the Douglas Park branch but also including Laflin to Marshfield's east on the main line. Skip-stop, wherein trains were designated either as "A" trains or "B" trains and stopped at respective "A" or "B" stations, was applied during weekdays to the surviving stations; Marshfield was designated an "all-stop" station under this scheme and was thus unaffected.[1]

As construction progressed, Garfield trains were rerouted from the "L" structure to temporary street-level trackage between Kedzie and Halsted, exclusive, ceasing to make intermediate stops in that interval, including the main line stations of Marshfield and Racine. In the process, Marshfield became a "B" station and Halsted became the transfer point between Garfield Park and Douglas Park trains. This change impacted westbound trains on September 20, 1953, and eastbound trains on September 27.[32] The CA&E, long struggling financially, refused to use the at-grade tracks due to safety concerns as well as the prospect of delays caused by the use of traffic signals at road crossings, and had serious doubts about its ability to reroute its right of way into the new expressway median;[33] despite some speculative plans for alternative train service to downtown Chicago, and after being disallowed by state regulators to abandon rail service altogether in favor of buses, the CA&E ultimately abandoned service east of Des Plaines on September 20, 1953.[34] This left Douglas Park trains as the sole remaining traffic for Marshfield and Racine, which remained temporarily open for them.[32]

Douglas Park trains started using the Paulina Connector to get to the Loop on April 4, 1954, removing the last traffic to Marshfield and Racine resulting in their closure; they were demolished soon afterwards.[35] After the change, Douglas Park riders needing to transfer to westbound Garfield Park trains were advised to use the Madison/Wells station in the Loop, whereas eastbound Garfield Park riders headed for Douglas Park were recommended to switch at State/Van Buren.[35] The Congress Line was complete in the area of Marshfield and opened on June 22, 1958, as part of the new "West-Northwest Route"; the route preserved Marshfield Junction between the Congress and Douglas Park lines, but with a new station on Racine Avenue as the final station before the divergence.[28][36] West of the junction on the Congress Line, the Medical Center station contained an auxiliary exit and part-time entrance on Paulina Street, a block west of Marshfield Avenue and immediately under the junction.[37]

An eastbound AE&C train approaches Marshfield in 1908, while an eastbound Garfield Park or Douglas Park train occupies the southern platform

As originally opened, the Metropolitan's trains ran every six minutes between 6 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., and every ten minutes during the night; the average speed was 16 mph (26 km/h).[11] By 1898, this schedule was updated so that trains ran at 30-minute intervals on each branch, or 7.5 minutes on the main line.[6] Westbound trains serving the Westchester branch, a continuation of the Garfield Park branch from Des Plaines opened in 1926, were express operations and did not stop at Marshfield during weekday rush hours or most of Saturdays; patrons wishing to go to Westchester needed to board Garfield Park trains to Laramie to transfer to Westchester trains.[42][43] Unlike the Lake Street Elevated, which operated smoking cars at some times but not at others, all of the Metropolitan's motor cars allowed smoking.[11] Smoking was banned by the city across the "L" and in streetcars in response to a 1918 influenza outbreak, a prohibition that has remained in force ever since.[44] Nevertheless, the CA&E still allowed smoking as late as 1948, splitting its cars into smoking and non-smoking components.[45]

The CA&E stopped at Marshfield to board westbound passengers and alight eastbound passengers; lest it compete with the "L" directly, patrons were not allowed to board eastbound trains at Marshfield, nor were westbound passengers allowed to alight at stations within the "L"'s area of service.[46] As early as 1934, several morning rush hour CA&E trains a day stopped at Laflin instead of Marshfield to discharge eastbound passengers.[47] By 1950, such trains, now the majority of morning rush hour trains, would instead use Ogden for eastbound alightment, although the remainder of CA&E trains continued eastbound alightment at Marshfield.[46] In the CTA era, CTA rules limited CA&E trains to 45 mph (72 km/h) on "L" tracks.[48] At the crossover east of Marshfield, CA&E trains were usually given priority over "L" trains lest the latter slow down CA&E service with their local service.[48]

The fare across the "L" was legally mandated to be a nickel (5 cents, $1.37 in 2021) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The nickel fare continued until temporarily increased by a cent to 6 cents in 1917 ($1.27 in 2021) before stabilizing to a dime in 1920 (10 cents, $1.35 in 2021).[49] Starting in 1922, fares were usually marketed in packs of three rides for 25 cents, or 8+1⁄3 cents per ride ($1.35 per ride in 2021), but individual fares remained 10 cents each.[50] At the same time, a weekly pass was introduced, the first in a major American city, for $1.25 ($20.24 in 2021) for rides outside of Evanston and Wilmette.[50] On the CA&E, the fare from Wells Street varied based on destination; ranging in 1934 from 28 cents to Hillside ($5.67 in 2021) to 75 cents to its various terminals ($15.19 in 2021). Round trip 10-day tickets, which required departure to be done on the same day as the ticket's purchase but allowed the return to be done at any time within the next 10 days, were sold as well, ranging from 55 cents to $1.35 ($11.14 to $27.35 in 2021) depending on destination, as well as monthly tickets for 54 and 60 rides, the latter ranging from $8.50 to $13.20 ($172.18 to $267.38 in 2021). The most expensive ticket sold by the CA&E was a 25-ride coupon good for a year after issue, which topped out at $17.16 at the terminals ($347.60 in 2021). The fare from Marshfield could have varied slightly from these prices.[47] By 1950, prices for fares were no longer advertised in time tables, but tickets continued to be sold in one-way; round-trip good for 30 days; yearly 10-ride and 25-ride; weekly 10-ride, 12-ride, and 14-ride; and monthly 60-ride configurations. Tickets sold on trains came with a dime ($1.13 in 2021) surcharge for full-fare tickets.[46]

Underneath the CA&E platform was the Dreamland Ballroom, a venue that was at one time owned by the CRT. Located near the station was the Coyne Electrical School and the Presbyterian Hospital. Also in the station's neighborhood was Chicago Stadium, more directly served by Madison on the Logan Square branch, and the headquarters of the retail cataloger Alden's.[48]

A streetcar ran on Ashland Avenue by the late 19th century; in the vicinity of the station, it turned west to run north from Paulina Avenue lest it run on a boulevard,[48] before turning back east to Ashland.[51] This route was through-routed from Clark Street down to 87th Street starting November 1, 1916.[52] This became known as "Through Route 9" (TR 9) in 1924.[51] By the early- to mid-20th century, Ashland was one of the "Big Five" streetcar lines in Chicago, which had the highest ridership, got the most amentities and had the shortest wait times.[53] As of 1928, TR 9 had owl service between 1 and 4:45 a.m., wherein streetcars ran every fifteen minutes;[54] during the day, streetcar lines in Chicago typically had intervals of between eight and fifteen minutes per car.[53] Buses replaced streetcars on weekends starting May 11, 1952, and altogether on February 13, 1954.[52]

In addition to the Ashland Avenue streetcar, one ran on Van Buren Street adjacent to the Metropolitan's tracks. Powered by horse until 1896, upon electrification it proceeded west from State Street to Kedzie Avenue.[55] Such streetcars were a competitor to the Metropolitan, siphoning many of its would-be passengers during the warm summer months as their cars were more open-air.[14] As of 1928, the Van Buren route had owl service between 1:03 and 4:42 a.m., where cars ran on intervals varying between 15, 24, and 30 minutes.[56] On October 11, 1937, the Van Buren route was through-routed with streetcar service on Division Street, about two miles (3.2 km) miles to the north, via downtown. This continued until Division Street service was replaced by buses and Van Buren streetcars were once again independent on February 4, 1951. This was short-lived, however, as buses replaced streetcars on Van Buren on August 12, 1951.[55]

Marshfield's "L" ridership peaked at 1,538,319 in 1926 and last exceeded a million in 1929,[57] although it broke 900,000 in the mid-to-late 1940s.[58] In the last full year of its operation, 1953, Marshfield served 688,433 passengers on the "L", a 3.48 percent decline from the 713,264 of 1951; ridership statistics are unavailable throughout the entire "L" for 1952. For the part of 1954 it was open, Marshfield served 135,928 passengers.[59] For 1953, Marshfield was in the exact middle of the main line's ridership, surpassing Racine and Franklin/Van Buren but underperforming Canal and Halsted.[59] For the "L" system as a whole, Marshfield's 1951 performance made it the 65th-busiest of 131 "L" stations that were at least partially-manned at the beginning of the year, while in 1953 it was the 68th-busiest of 137 such stations. Accounting for the part of 1954 it was open, it had the 114th-highest patronage out of those 137 stations.[lower-alpha 4][63]

Although the CA&E did not collect ridership statistics by station, the railroad's total ridership was less than four million annually starting in 1949, and declining in that period of time. After the September 1953 suspension of direct "one-seat ride" service into Chicago, the railroad lost half of these riders by December as riders opted instead for the nearby Chicago and North Western Railroad (C&NW) or automobiles to get into the city.[64] Faced with this onslaught, the CA&E discontinued passenger service altogether at midday on July 3, 1957. Passengers who had taken the morning trains to Chicago were caught unaware by this development and had to find alternative transportation home.[65]