A five car train pulls into York Street in 1948 on its way east to the Wells Street Terminal. Two men (either track or signal maintainers) walk down the westbound track while a third man with a Fairmont motorcar stands nearby at the crossing. Powell’s served as the station’s ticket office.
Unknown, C Scholes
York St.
York Street near Seminole Avenue, City of Elmhurst
- Address: TBD
- Established: August 25, 1902
- Original Line: Aurora, Elgin & Chicago Ry
- Rebuilt: 1910
- Previous Names: South Elmhurst
- (View location)
History:
York St. was a station on the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin’s main line at the crossing York Street north of Vallette Steet in Elmhurst. The station opened on August 25, 1902 as South Elmhurst and was one of the original stops on the Aurora, Elgin and Chicago Railway.1 York St. consisted of two low level platforms on opposite sides of York. The eastbound platform was on the west side of the crossing and the westbound platform was on the east side.
Circa 1911, York St. was one of a several stops to be upgraded with either brick or stone stations as part of an improvement project.2 York received a brick waiting shelter with a hipped, tile roof of the same type as at Seminary, Berkeley, Spring Road, Villa Park, and High Lake. The new waiting shelter contained a single room with a brick fireplace, cement floors, and electric heaters.2 As this structure was insufficient to house a ticket office, tickets were instead sold at Powell’s Confectionery, a commercial establishment on York Street immediately south of the CA&E right-of-way.3
Some time after the end of Chicago, Aurora & Elgin passenger service ended, the brick station was demolished and the lights, signage, and other platform accessories were removed. The Illinois Prairie Path now runs through the station, however, both the east-and-westbound platforms are still in existence though typically obscured by the wild undergrowth in the area.
