History
51st was built in 1892 when the South Side Elevated Railroad extended its line southward to serve the World's Columbian Exposition. The original station was designed by Myron H. Church and was a brick building with some elements of the Queen Anne style and a half-cone bay. The platforms at 51st were constructed like all other South Side Elevated Railroad platforms and consisted of wooden platforms with a tin canopy.
When the A/B skip-stop system was introduced in 1949, 51st became an AB station. Because Garfield and 58th were B and A stations respectively, 51st became the transfer point between the Englewood (A) and Jackson Park (B) branches of the South Side Elevated. It served as the transfer point until 1982, when Garfield became an AB station.
51st closed in 1990, so its original canopies could be removed. The station underwent further renovations during the 1994-96 Green Line closure, and its station house was replaced with a modern station house with a white and green tile facade. The platforms were also rebuilt, and steel and glass platforms replaced the old wooden ones. Construction at 51st was not completed until 1997, a year after the Green Line reopened.
Read more about this topic: 51st (CTA Station)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of the past is but one long struggle upward to equality.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
“Systematic philosophical and practical anti-intellectualism such as we are witnessing appears to be something truly novel in the history of human culture.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)
“The custard is setting; meanwhile
I not only have my own history to worry about
But am forced to fret over insufficient details related to large
Unfinished concepts that can never bring themselves to the point
Of being, with or without my help, if any were forthcoming.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)