Argyle station (CTA)

Argyle is a station on the Chicago Transit Authority's 'L' system. It is situated between the Berwyn and Lawrence stations on the Red Line, which runs from Rogers Park at Chicago's northern city limits, through downtown Chicago, to Roseland. It is an elevated station with an island platform. Located at 1118 West Argyle Street in the West Argyle Street Historic District of Chicago's Uptown community area. Purple Line weekday rush hour express service passes through this station but does not stop, normally on tracks outside the Red line tracks, but due to the reconstruction going on until 2025, they currently use the same tracks as Red Line trains.

Location
Argyle is situated on West Argyle Street, close to the intersection with Broadway though it has temporarily been located slightly north to a location between Foster Avenue and Winona Street due to reconstruction at the original site. The station is located in the West Argyle Street Historic District in the Uptown community area of Chicago; the area surrounding the station consists of a mixture commercial and residential areas, and is particularly noted for the high concentration of Vietnamese restaurants, bakeries and shops; as well as Chinese, Cambodian, Laotian, and Thai businesses.

History

The site of Argyle station was first used as Argyle Park on the Chicago and Evanston branch of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad route, which opened on May 21, 1885. On opening, the station houses along the route were described as "attractive frame structures built in the Gothic and Queen Anne styles." In 1908, the Northwestern Elevated Railroad was extended north from Wilson, using the tracks of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, and a new station was constructed on the site of the previous depot. The station was again rebuilt to a design by architect Charles P. Rawson when the tracks between Wilson and Howard were elevated onto an embankment between 1914 and 1922. In 1979, the station received a $250,000 facelift and, in 1991, a Chinese-style hipped-and-gabled roof was added to the platform canopy. The station was closed for renovation from August 24 to October 5, 2012.

Services

Argyle is part of CTA's Red Line, which runs from the northern city limits at Howard Street to downtown Chicago and 95th street. The station has an island platform on an elevated structure located between Broadway and Winthrop Avenue. It serves the Red Line's two tracks; the northbound track serves trains to Howard, while the southbound track serves trains to 95th. The station entrance was originally located on the north side of Argyle Street, built into the embankment. It is located between the Berwyn and Lawrence stations. Red Line trains serve Argyle 24 hours a day, every day of the year; trains operate roughly every 3 to 9 minutes during rush hour and midday operation, with longer headways of up to 15 minutes at night. The station is also located  a block from the 36 Broadway bus.

Red & Purple Modernization Project
The Argyle station is being rebuilt as part of this project. The station will receive new wider platforms, new signage, new lights, new security cameras, and new elevators, reconstruction will begin in May 2021 and will be completed in 2025. During Stage A, the two northbound tracks and the main entrance were closed with northbound trains using what is normally the southbound Red line track and platform and southbound trains using the southbound Purple Line Express track stopping at a temporary side platform. Purple Line Express trains will continue to skip this station in both directions. Unlike a similar reconstruction that happened simultaneously at Bryn Mawr, both platforms are used single temporary entrance, as opposed to one platform using the normal entrance and one platform using a temporary entrance with no link in the paid area. After Stage A was completed in 2023, Stage B began, where the station was temporarily relocated a block north to a location between Foster Avenue and Winona Street with an entrance on each street.  This time, the temporary station is an island platform located on what will be the permanent northbound Red Line track, located between what will be a completely new pocket track (which did not exist on the original structure) immediately to the north of the site of both the original and permanent new stations (currently being used by all southbound trains), and the permanent Purple Line Express northbound track (currently being used by all northbound trains).

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links 

Argyle Station Page CTA official site
Argyle Street entrance from Google Maps Street View

CTA Red Line stations
Railway stations in the United States opened in 1908
1908 establishments in Illinois