LaSalle Street Station: One Of Chicago's Great Terminals

Last revised: September 15, 2026

LaSalle Street Station is the stub-end terminal at 414 South LaSalle Street, on the south edge of the Loop between Van Buren and Harrison. The Rock Island put a station on this ground on October 10, 1852, the day the 4-4-0 Rocket ran Chicago to Joliet. The house everyone remembers opened July 1, 1903, Frost & Granger, Beaux-Arts, jointly the Rock Island’s and the New York Central’s. The 20th Century Limited left from here. So did the Rockets and the Golden State. The headhouse and trainshed came down in 1981. Trains never left. Metra’s Rock Island District still ends under the office tower on the same land.

New York Central E8A 4072 departing Chicago LaSalle Street Station with the Motor City Special March 21 1956

New York Central E8A #4072 departs Chicago’s LaSalle Street Station with the “Motor City Special” (Chicago–Detroit) on March 21, 1956.

On this page: At a glance · 1852, the fire, 1866 · Frost & Granger, 1903 · Century, Rockets, Golden State · Suburban trains · 1967–1981 · Metra

At a glance

Item	Detail
Address	414 South LaSalle Street, Chicago. Loop, Van Buren to Harrison
First station on the site	October 10, 1852, Chicago & Rock Island from 22nd Street. First train, 4-4-0 Rocket, Chicago–Joliet
Second house	December 1866. Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana as co-tenant with Rock Island
Chicago Fire	October 1871. Rebuilt
The remembered building	Frost & Granger, Beaux-Arts. Opened July 1, 1903. Razed 1981
Owners of the 1903 house	Rock Island and New York Central (Lake Shore & Michigan Southern predecessor)
Other tenants	Nickel Plate from May 1, 1883 (Van Buren house, then 1903 LaSalle). Michigan Central in later New York Central years
Flagship trains	New York Central 20th Century Limited (1902–December 1967). Rock Island–Southern Pacific Golden State. Rock Island Rocket fleet
Last New York Central	Penn Central took the Central February 1, 1968 and moved the remaining trains to Union Station
Last Rock Island intercity	1978. Peoria Rocket and Quad Cities service had outlived Amtrak’s start
Today	Metra Rock Island District, Joliet. Platforms and a modest concourse under 425 South Financial Place (One Financial Place)

October 10, 1852, is the Rock Island’s first Chicago–Joliet train (Schafer). Frost & Granger and July 1, 1903, are the live building dates. Information compiled September 15, 2026.

1852, the fire, 1866

Chicago was already the place eastern roads met western ones. The Chicago & Rock Island reached downtown from 22nd Street on October 10, 1852. Mike Schafer, in Classic American Railroads, puts the 4-4-0 Rocket on that first Joliet trip. The Northern Indiana & Chicago, soon the Michigan Southern and later the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, was then at 12th Street with another Rock Island depot. In December 1866 a new station on the LaSalle site took the Michigan Southern in as co-tenant. From Englewood south the two companies ran parallel into the terminal for the rest of the passenger era.

The Great Chicago Fire of October 1871 burned the 1866 house. It was rebuilt on the same ground. That post-fire station lasted until the 1903 replacement. The Nickel Plate left the Illinois Central/Michigan Central lakefront depot and joined the Lake Shore and Rock Island at the Van Buren Street house on May 1, 1883. It stayed through the 1903 rebuilding for the rest of its corporate life.

Frost & Granger, 1903

Charles Sumner Frost and Alfred Hoyt Granger designed the house that stood until 1981. It opened July 1, 1903: brick Beaux-Arts headhouse at LaSalle and Van Buren, trainshed behind, stub tracks pointing south. The same Frost later did the Chicago & North Western Terminal, now Ogilvie, which opened March 8, 1911. LaSalle was a two-road terminal, not a six-road union station. Rock Island owned it with New York Central. Everyone else paid rent.

Chicago had six second-generation downtown terminals. Dearborn (1885) was the oldest of that generation and took the most companies—Santa Fe, Monon, Chicago & Eastern Illinois, Erie, Wabash, Grand Trunk. Those roads were never LaSalle tenants. Grand Central (1890) was the B&O’s. Union Station took the Pennsylvania, Burlington, and Milwaukee. Central Station was the Illinois Central’s. North Western Terminal was the North Western’s alone. LaSalle was the Central’s and the Rock’s. The directory of those houses is stations.

Hitchcock shot North by Northwest here in 1959. The Sting used it in 1973. The building was already living on borrowed passenger traffic both times.

Century, Rockets, Golden State

New York Central 20th Century Limited departing Chicago LaSalle Street Station September 1962 with a Rock Island commuter train

New York Central’s handsome “20th Century Limited” departs Chicago’s busy LaSalle Street Station on a September afternoon in 1962. Note the outbound Rock Island commuter train.

The New York Central’s Chicago door was this trainshed. The 20th Century Limited began in 1902, New York Grand Central to LaSalle, and died in December 1967. Sixteen hours, 961 miles, red carpet on the platform. The Commodore Vanderbilt was the second section. The Wolverine, the Motor City Special in the 1956 photograph at the top of this page, the New England States—Great Steel Fleet trains that used the Lake Shore into Englewood and then the last six miles to Van Buren. Michigan Central traffic used LaSalle in the later Central years after years at Central Station. The trains are their own pages. The Central as a company is the Water Level Route page.

The Rock Island’s Chicago door was the same shed. The Golden State Limited of 1902 became the streamliner Golden State with Southern Pacific in January 1948, Chicago to Los Angeles via Tucumcari, last westbound from LaSalle on April 8, 1968. The Rocket fleet was the slogan made metal: Peoria Rocket from September 19, 1937; Rocky Mountain Rocket from November 12, 1939; Jet Rocket to Peoria, 1956–57; Quad Cities as a late name on the old Denver train. Amtrak did not take the Rock Island. The Peoria Rocket and the Quad Cities trains kept coming into LaSalle after May 1, 1971, until 1978.

Suburban trains

Rock Island RS3 492 with train 133 at Chicago LaSalle Street Station August 1962

Rock Island RS3 #492 has train 133 at LaSalle Street Station; August, 1962. Rick Burn photo.

Rock Island RS3 486 inbound commuter toward LaSalle Street Station Chicago May 13 1964 Roosevelt Road viaduct

Rock Island RS3 #486 is bringing an inbound morning commuter north toward LaSalle Street Station on May 13, 1964. The 12th Street Coach Yards can be seen at right. This scene was taken from Chicago’s Roosevelt Road Viaduct. Marty Bernard photo.

The suburban side outlived the varnish. Rock Island ran commuters south through Blue Island to Joliet on the same iron the Rockets used for the first forty miles. Alco RS3s in the photographs—486, 492, 494—were the late steam-generator goats on those turns. The 12th Street coach yard sat just south of Roosevelt Road. After the Rock Island’s freight collapse, the commuter operation passed to the Chicago & North Western in 1980, then in 1981 to the Regional Transportation Authority’s new operating arm, the company that became Metra.

Rock Island RS3s 486 and 494 outbound suburban train from Chicago LaSalle Street Station circa 1967

Rock Island RS3s #486 and #494 work an outbound suburban run from Chicago’s LaSalle Street Station, circa 1967. American-Rails.com collection.

Rock Island RS3 494 leading an outbound suburban train from LaSalle Street Station Chicago February 18 1968

Rock Island RS3 #494 leads an outbound suburban train departing LaSalle Street Station in Chicago on February 18, 1968. Roger Puta photo.

1967–1981

The Century made its last trips in December 1967. Penn Central, February 1, 1968, did not need two Chicago houses. The remaining Central trains went to Union Station. LaSalle became a Rock Island terminal with a Nickel Plate memory and a shrinking intercity timetable. The Golden State died that April. The Rockets shrank to Peoria and the Quad Cities. Those two outlasted Amtrak because the Rock Island stayed out of Amtrak. They died with the railroad’s passenger will in 1978. Liquidation of the company was January 25, 1980.

The 1903 headhouse and trainshed came down in 1981. One Financial Place—later 425 South Financial Place, the Chicago Stock Exchange tower—went up on the Van Buren frontage. The tracks were not abandoned. A new, smaller concourse and platforms were built behind and under the tower so the Joliet commuters never had to find another downtown.

Metra

Metra’s Rock Island District still ends at LaSalle: Blue Island, the Beverly Branch, Joliet. The waiting room is not Frost & Granger. It is a commuter terminal under an office building, ticket window, a couple of retail stands, CTA around the corner. That is what a Chicago stub-end station becomes when the long-distance trains leave and the suburban ones do not. Grand Central is a vacant lot. Dearborn is shops without tracks. LaSalle kept the trains.

Sources

Schafer, Mike. Classic American Railroads. Osceola, Wis.: MBI. Rock Island 4-4-0 Rocket, first Chicago–Joliet train October 10, 1852
American-Rails.com, Nickel Plate. May 1, 1883, into the Lake Shore/Rock Island Van Buren house; 1903 LaSalle for the rest of the corporate life
American-Rails.com, 20th Century Limited. LaSalle as the Chicago terminal; last year 1967
American-Rails.com, Golden State. November 2, 1902 Limited; streamliner January 1948; last westbound April 8, 1968
American-Rails.com Rocket pages linked above. LaSalle as Chicago terminal; Peoria Rocket and Quad Cities trains after Amtrak until 1978
American-Rails.com, Chicago & Eastern Illinois and Monon. Dearborn Station, not LaSalle
American-Rails.com, North Western Terminal. Charles Sumner Frost; March 8, 1911
American-Rails.com, Rock Island. Company end January 25, 1980; commuter handoff

Facebook X Pinterest Tumblr Reddit WhatsApp Messenger