Chicago Surface Lines Streetcar Service Photograph Gallery. 1859-1950

Streetcar service started in 1859 with horse-drawn cars. The first cable car in Chicago ran on State Street at 2:30 PM on January 28, 1882, with the last cable car arriving at a powerhouse at 21st Street on October 21, 1906. Cable cars were being replaced by electric-powered trolleys starting in 1890. Due to the enormous investment in cable car systems and opposition to overhead electrical wires, Chicago clung tenaciously to its increasingly derided cable cars until 1906, nearly a quarter-century after opening its inaugural line.

By the mid-1930s, 3,742 streetcars were running on tracks laid along 529 miles of streets in a grid that provided Chicagoans a streetcar stop within a few blocks of where they lived, worked, or shopped.

When trolleys traveled the city's streets, Chicagoans looked down the tracks with a mix of emotions: frustration on cold nights when it seemed a streetcar would never come, the anticipation of a jostling ride in a crush of strap holders, anger at the streetcar company which, having greased politicians' palms, wasn't concerned with riders' comfort. But when the final trolley ran on the last route in 1958, those feelings dissolved into a golden afterglow of nostalgia.

Chicago's first one-horse-drawn streetcar ran along State Street from Randolph Street to 12th Street in 1859. The car was called a "Bobtail," having no rear platform.

A horse-drawn streetcar operated by the North Chicago City Railway Co., circa 1870-1875.

A horse-drawn streetcar at Grand Avenue and Leavitt Street, circa 1886.

An 1892 Chicago cable streetcar, which replaced horse-drawn cars, was powered by a cable running underground between the tracks. The car and its conductors are at Wells and Clark Streets.

One of the first electric trolleys was installed on 61st Street and used during the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.

Chicago Jackson Park cable car. Undated.

The Englewood portion of the north-south 'L' -  The 63rd and Halsted Streets ' L' station. People run to catch the streetcar. (circa 1920)

The last streetcar in the barn during a streetcar strike, August 3, 1922.

During a streetcar strike, streetcars parked in the Howard Avenue open-air barns on August 3, 1922.

Parked streetcars during a strike, August 1922. You can see the "Third Rail" for the new electric street cars on the curved track in the foreground.

New Streetcar, October 3, 1929.

The interior of a newly designed Chicago streetcar in 1934 shows more passenger seats.

The new streetcar, on the right, and the old fashioned, horse-drawn street car on the left, April 23, 1934.

New Chicago streetcars, November 14, 1936.

A boy hops a ride on a streetcar on 51st Street near Western Avenue. The photo was taken from the window of a passing auto on June 6, 1937.

During World War II, Majorettes helped sell war bonds and stamps in red, white, and blue streetcars. The car went into regular service on Broadway in July of 1942.

The rear platform of the Milwaukee Avenue streetcar is so crowded at North Avenue that women are stuck in the door as the conductor tried to close it on January 20, 1950.

The CTA burned old streetcars on their property at 78th Street and Vincennes Avenue on January 14, 1949. Some of the streetcars were 40 years old.

Chicago Tribune Historical Photographs; CTA 

A 1930s Chicago Surface Lines Safety Film.

Safe Highways ─ Chicago Surface Lines Trolleys. circa 1930s

This silent film from the 1930s was produced to educate citizens about the safety and avoidance of accidents when around Streetcars in Chicago. Shown are accidents involving Streetcars with automobiles, multiple motor vehicles, and pedestrian safety exiting Streetcars.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Michigan Boulevard Photographs from the Lake Michigan Breakwater. 1865

Notice how the lake came directly up to Michigan Ave. This was before the expansion of the shoreline landfill from the debris of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

Michigan Boulevard from breakwater between Congress and Van Buren Streets. Terrace Row is on the left and Trinity Church can be seen also. (1865)

Looking west from the breakwater at Michigan Boulevard and Madison Street, Chicago, (1865)

"Big Jim" O'Leary's Amazing Life Story. (1869-1925)

Jim (James Patrick) O'Leary was the son of the infamous Patrick and Catherine O'Leary whose cow was said to have started the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 (Mrs. O'Leary and the cow were exonerated by the City of Chicago on Sept. 10, 1997). Jim was only two years old at the time, but that event set the course for the rest of his life.

After the fire, the family was decimated financially and their reputation was shot. They moved to the South Side Back of the Yards neighborhood where Jim grew up. O'Leary worked for the local bookies when he was a teenager, and eventually, he began as a bookmaker himself in Long Beach, Indiana, an off-track betting resort. However, he soon went bankrupt and went to work at the Union Stock Yards, where he gained the nickname "Big Jim."

O'Leary's Saloon with neighboring buildings at 4183 South Halsted, Chicago. 1906

In the early 1890s, he left the Stock Yards and opened a saloon at 4183 South Halsted Street, Chicago, which included Turkish baths, a restaurant, a billiard room, and a bowling alley. The name "O'Leary" in giant electric letters, proudly emblazoned the front door as a sign of Big Jim's pride.

Note: Although Chicago renamed these streets; Dyer St., Egyptian Rd., 1st St., and 1st Ave., were renamed to Halsted in 1909, just not as far as 4100 south. 

The renumbering of Chicago street addresses in 1909 for South Halsted, ends at 965 which was changed to today's address of 2338 South Halsted. North Halsted numbering changes stoped at 2040 which was changed to today's address of 3809 North Halsted.

A drawing of the interior of O’Leary’s 4185 S Halsted Street establishment. Big Jim revealed its maze of secret rooms and the fact that his gambling operations were conducted in a supposedly vacant building next door when he announced, on 1 December 1911, that the building was for sale and that he was retiring. O’Leary’s saloon housed only law-abiding activities and was internally separated from the building next door by double iron doors.

He also posted detailed race track results and other betting information near the entrance to the Stock Yards. O'Leary soon began operating a pool hall and book parlor in the rear of his saloon. He became one of the leading gamblers in Chicago and was known for taking bets on everything from presidential candidates to changes in the weather.

O'Leary had a reputation for fair dealing. Chicago's longtime alderman-vice lord, Michael “Hinky Dink” Kenna, said of him, "He was a square shooter. Big Jim never welshed on a bet. He was a good loser and his patrons had confidence in him that he would always pay off if he lost.

In 1904, O'Leary began operating illegal gambling on Lake Michigan aboard the steamship The City of Traverse. Without police protection, this ventured had failed by 1907 because of police raids each time the ship docked.

The steamship "City of Traverse" docked on the Chicago River. Related to Big Jim O'Leary's gambling raids on the "City of Traverse" ship. 1905

O'Leary refused to bribe the police and instead had his saloon protected by constructing iron and zinc layered oak front doors to his saloon which allegedly were "fireproof, bomb-proof, and police-proof."

Big Jim O'Leary

O'Leary's success attracted unwanted attention, both from rival gambling operations and the police. His saloon was constantly raided by the cops for twenty-five years, beginning in 1899, but Big Jim was always one step ahead, and though indicted four times, he was convicted for gambling only once, at the age of 53, three years before his death, and was fined $100 for the first offense. 

In 1906, Mayor Edward Fitzsimmons Dunne briefly revoked O'Leary's saloon license, but before long, O'Leary "sold" his gambling house to an employee, who reapplied for, and was granted, a new license, putting Big Jim back in business for good. Some of O'Leary's success in evading the police was political: his son, James, Jr., married the daughter of the city's top police inspector. Also, police officers, like most other men, enjoyed gambling and frequently tipped off O'Leary if a raid was planned.

A larger problem than the police were rival gamblers. During the gambling wars, Big Jim's place was bombed with dynamite in 1907 (possibly as retribution for the bombing two months earlier at Blind John Condon's place), and twice in 1908. Each time, he rebuilt.

Following Chicago crime lord Michael Cassius MacDonald's death that year O'Leary took over complete control of gambling on Chicago's southwest side around the Union Stock Yards. 

In 1906, a group of investors, led by boxing promoter James "Big Jim" O'Leary announced plans to convert the ten-acre picnic grove into an amusement park at Halsted and 52nd Street, Chicago. Named Luna Park, the amusement park occupied the site of a former picnic grove owned by Joseph Oswald and commonly known as Oswald's Grove. It opened with O'Leary as the principal owner in 1907. In 1913, he opened the O'Leary Market on the former site of Luna Park.

Jim O'Leary's philosophy of life: 

"There are three kinds of people in this world; gamblers, burglars, and beggars. Nearly everybody gambles. Sometimes it's with money, sometimes it's with time, sometimes it's with jobs. Nearly every fellow is willing to take a chance. Other folks are burglars. They make their lives by stealing. The second-story man, the safecracker, and the dip are not the only burglars. You'll find a lot of others in offices in the loop. A fellow that won't gamble or steal is a beggar."

O'Leary, who delivered whiskey to Colosimo's Cafe under an arrangement with Johnny Torrio, was suspected of involvement in the May 11, 1920 murder of James Colosimo, but no charges were brought against him. By the time of Colosimo's death, O'Leary had become a millionaire several times over.

Despite numerous raids by police, O'Leary was found guilty of gambling only one time during his thirty-year career. The perception was that O'Leary, along with gambling bosses Mont Tennes and "Hot Stove" Jimmy Quinn, controlled the Chicago Police.

O'Leary married Annie McLaughlin, whose family lived next to the O'Leary's at the time of the fire. They were the parents of two sons and three daughters.

Late in life, O'Leary mused to a reporter about his success: "How much have I cleaned up? I'm satisfied with the results. I've got enough to take a trip around the world when I sell my shop. Then I'm going to settle down in some live little town."

Big Jim never got to do that, as he died of natural causes at the age of 56 in his home at 726 West Garfield Boulevard, on January 23, 1925. Big Jim O’Leary knew you had to keep up a good front. When Jim died his entire estate was valued at $10,200.

After his death, the O'Leary gambling house continued to be run by a business partner for a few years, until, somewhat ironically, the place burned down in the second-biggest fire in Chicago history, the 1934 Stockyards fire. Jim and his wife are buried next to his parents in a Chicago cemetery.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Two Different Riverview Stadiums at Different Times in Chicago's History.

It appears that there were, at different times in Chicago history, two Chicago racing stadiums. The first was called the Riverview Stadium Motordrome aka Riverview Stadium which adjoined to Riverview Amusement Park in Chicago, Illinois in the early 1900s. The second stadium was known as Riverview Speedway which opened in 1936. Both stadiums literally have nearly the same footprint, and both are discussed here.

Chicago Franchise wanted by both the Riverview Stadium Motordrome and the Chicago Motorcycle Club.

A rather peculiar situation has arisen in Chicago, bearing upon the award of an exclusive board track franchise for that city. Such a franchise is wanted by M. W. N. Johnson, now sole owner of the Riverview Stadium Motordrome, and also by the Chicago Motorcycle Club, which would like to build a track on the south side of the city. The Chicago Club, however, has not yet secured a site for its proposed track. On the other hand, the Riverview Stadium Motordrome management is ready to hold its inaugural meet in July.

The Riverview Stadium Motordrome settled on the northwest corner of the Riverview Amusement Park property. It bordered by the North Branch of the Chicago River to the west, Rockwell Street to the east, Addison Street to the north and approximately where Cornelia Avenue would be located to the south.

View of a group of girls wearing costume dresses standing in a circle around the perimeter of a surfaced area during a local competition of amateur athletes from the Chicago area only that was called the local "Olympic Games" and was held only on June 14, 1913, at Riverview Stadium Adjoining Riverview Amusement Park in Chicago, Illinois.

About the middle of April, Chairman Thornley signed a draft of the agreement adopted by the F. A. M. (Federation of American Motorcyclists) Board of Directors suggesting that it be executed at that time. However, there was some litigation then pending relative to the ownership of the track, and the execution of the exclusive franchise agreement and the payment of the fee was deferred.

View of two groups of young men performing a gymnastics routine on two ladders in a dirt or sand lot during a local competition of amateur athletes from the Chicago area only that was called the local "Olympic Games" and was held only on June 14, 1913, at Riverview Stadium Adjoining Riverview Amusement Park in Chicago, Illinois.

Late in April, a settlement was reached, whereupon Johnson wired $1,000 to Dr. Thornley, $750 in payment of the franchise fee and $250 to make up a purse which, as announced last year, was to go to the professional driver winning the largest number of races. The winner of this prize is Joe Wolters.

Johnson has also made application for six sanctions, and Chairman Thornley will undoubtedly decide in his favor, unless he receives formal objection within thirty days, from a majority of the members of the Board of Directors.

The Riverview races will again be refereed by H. T. Roberts.

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Riverview Speedway 1936-1942 (aka: Riverview Stadium), 2601 West Addison Street, Chicago, Illinois.

Riverview Speedway  was located on the northwest part of the Riverview Amusement Park property which was nearly the same footprint as the former Riverview Stadium Motordrome. Chicago's Riverview Speedway or Riverview Stadium was one of the finest midget auto racing tracks in the country, but had a short life of seven years. The track's grandstands would eventually seat 12,000.

Chicago businessman and sportsman, Thorne Donnelley, and others were behind the project. Donnelley, president of the Midwest Auto Racing Association, announced that the new speedway would be the association's "home track" for the 1936 outdoor racing season. Donnelley, son of Reuben H. Donnelley, Chicago's publishing and printing magnate, was involved with midget racing from the start in the Chicago area, owning midget race cars. Jimmy Snyder was his driver.

Riverview Stadium program cover from August 6, 1939

RECAP OF THE PRIME MIDGET RACES:
Opening night at the one-fifth mile dirt "speed plant" was on Sunday evening, May 24, 1936. Midget racing was in "full bloom" in the Chicago area with the Lincolnwood Motor Speedway (aka: Chicago Midget Speedway), at Pratt and McCormick in Lincolnwood, also hosting a midget racing program that same night.

Jack "Curley" Mills of Los Angeles, a pioneer of midget racing, dating back to some of the earliest midget races on the West Coast in 1934, won the 40-lap inaugural main event at Riverview, besting Bob Swanson, Pat Warren, Chicago's own Jimmy Snyder and Johnny Sawyer. Swanson, the West Coast champion considered by many to be one of the greatest midget drivers ever, defeated Snyder, Chicago's 1935-36 indoor midget racing champion, in a special four-lap match race. A capacity crowd of 8,000 witnessing the races and the track's grandstands would eventually seat 12,000. Just for the record, Paul Russo won the feature race at the Chicago Midget Speedway that same night, defeating Cletus "Cowboy" O'Rourke and Everett Rice.

The 1936 schedule called for races every Sunday and Wednesday evenings. By season's end, the track had seen over two dozen events held with Snyder being named the track's overall champion for the inaugural season. The season finale was held on September 27 with Art Hartsfeld of Toledo, Ohio grabbing the win over Marshall Lewis and Robert "Shorty" Sorenson.

The 1937 season at Riverview Speedway opened on May 23, 1937 with Hartsfeld being the winner of the 40-lap main event ahead of Russo and Ted Tetterton. Another busy schedule with racing every Sunday and Wednesday was seen with the likes of Russo, Lewis, Ray Richards, Frank Beeder, Wally Zale and Ted Duncan among feature race winners. Hartsfeld claimed track championship honors.

Harry McQuinn of Indianapolis was the "guy to beat" at Riverview Speedway in 1938 as the track ran pretty much a one night a week schedule on Sundays. McQuinn wheeled the Wisconsin-based Marchese Miller No. 4 midget to the overall track championship. Bob Lundgreen and Harry Zoern were the promoters that season. The Riverview track was the only Chicago area speedway to hold weekly midget races during the season. The new Raceway Park near Blue Island hosted its inaugural program on September 24, 1938 with McQuinn grabbing the "opening night" 40-lap feature.

A few weather-related postponements caused the 1939 racing season at Riverview Speedway not to get underway until June 4, with Wisconsin's Tony Willman in Fred Tomshe's Offenhauser-powered midget taking top honors in the 40-lap feature over Jimmy Snyder. Snyder was coming off of a great run at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 30, finishing second in the 500-mile classic after grabbing pole position honors after a record qualifying effort. Less than a month later, Snyder would lose his life in a midget racing accident at Cahokia, Illinois, at 31 years old.

Chicago's Wally Zale captured track championship honors for the 1939 season. Zale, along with Willman, Lyle Dickey and Ray Richards were feature winners during the year. Richards won the 75-lap championship chase on September 10 in his Marchese Miller midget.

Zale nailed down his second consecutive Riverview Speedway track championship in 1940, sharing feature win honors with the likes of Ted Duncan, Ray Richards and Bob Muhlke. The season got underway on June 2 with Duncan in the Tomshe Offy claiming top honors in the 40-lap feature. Zale in his own black “Offy” No. 1 won the season finale on September 15 over Duncan, Muhlke, Myron Fohr and Tony Bettenhausen. The "rough and ready" Zale was reported to have won a total of 67 midget feature races during the 1940 season.

Chicago's Wally Zale was the area's most prolific midget racing feature winner from the mid 1930s until his passing in 1942. Zale, nicknamed "The Human Cyclone," during his heyday, established a single season feature win record of 67 in 1940. Zale was credited with 178 midget victories before his death in a double-train/car collision. Zale is pictured here at Chicago's Riverview Stadium in 1940. 

With the War in Europe seemingly getting closer to the United States day after day, Riverview Speedway kicked off its sixth season of midget racing on May 18. The 1941 season opener saw Ted Duncan in the Frank Podriznik No. 15 "Offy" win the 30-lap feature race over Jimmy Caris and Bob Muhlke.

Duncan would post track title-winning efforts in 1941, using a 100-lap victory on August 31 to propel himself to the track championship. Duncan, along with Muhlke, Ray Richards and Myron Fohr, were feature winners during the season. The 100-lap season finale was won by Richards on September 21 as he defeated Duncan, Muhlke, Pete Nielsen and Shorty Sorenson. Richards, who grabbed fast time honors during time trials with a lap of 15.58 seconds, covered the 100-lap distance in a record 26:30.80 minutes.

With the United States now in World War II and automobile racing seemingly ready to be halted any day, Riverview Speedway opened the 1942 season on Sunday evening, May 24, after being rained out the week before. Former Golden Gloves boxing champ Jimmy Caris of Chicago wheeled the Hopkins Offy to victory honors in the 30-lap feature ahead of Ray Richards and Bob Muhlke.

Hailing from Highland Park, Illinois, Richards, behind the wheel of his Leader Card Offy No. 5, would garner track championship honors during the track's final season. In addition to Richards and Caris, other feature winners were Myron Fohr, Cletus "Cowboy" O'Rourke, Ted Duncan and Tony Bettenhausen.

Richards scored a 100-lap victory on June 21, defeating Fohr and Muhlke. Another 100 lapper was held on July 19, with O'Rourke claiming the win over Bettenhausen, Richards and Al Cummings.

Wednesday evening, July 29, 1942, would mark the final racing program ever held at the Riverview Speedway oval as the U.S. Government ended all auto racing activities for the duration of the war. Tony Bettenhausen would have the honor of winning the final feature race at the track, wheeling his Muntz-Nichels Offy to the 100-lap win over Richards, Muhlke, Cummings, and O'Rourke. He covered the distance in 25:03.07 minutes. That night, Richards was awarded his track championship trophy and claimed top honors in the 15-lap "handicap" race.

Who would have realized that when the lights were shut off that night, it would mark the end of racing at the popular speedway on Chicago's northside? The Riverview amusement park would last until 1967, but its neighboring speedway was just a memory after World War II ended. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.