PRR freight house Chicago

[scwylder]

Riding on Amtrak's Broadway Limited out of Chicago in 1973, I was amazed at the size or the Pennsylvania Railroad freight house on the right.  The word "massive" hardly did the place justice.  I doubt whether it was being used at the time, and it  must have been torn down shortly thereafter. Does anyone know any details of the building's history, and when it finally succumbed to the wrecker's ball?  I imagine the interior was a rabbit warren of interconnecting storage rooms, but I can't be absolutely sure.  Did anyone write a piece about it.  It shows up in hundreds, perhaps thousands of photos, but there's virtually nothing about it on the Web.

[pullman jct]

Ed DeRouin's book on the PRR Chicago terminal has a good section on the PRR freight house. If you haven't seen the book, I highly recommend it!

Bob

[richhotrain]

pullman jct

Ed DeRouin's book on the PRR Chicago terminal has a good section on the PRR freight house. If you haven't seen the book, I highly recommend it!

Bob

I see that the author passed away in March, 2010.

[pullman jct]

Rich,

Sadly, yes.

Bob

[richhotrain]

scwylder

Does anyone know any details of the building's history, and when it finally succumbed to the wrecker's ball?  I imagine the interior was a rabbit warren of interconnecting storage rooms, but I can't be absolutely sure.  Did anyone write a piece about it. 

We never did get an answer to this question.  Anyone got any info to share?

Rich

[pullman jct]

The PRR Chicago Terminal book that I mentioned has a few pages devoted to the freight house. It is the best documentation that I have come across.

[esperanzaqueen]

I was the same doubt than you because i want to make an H0 layout about chicago union and i admire that building. i´ve been searching information about pennsylvania railroad freight terminal I was investigating for one year and and i discovered the architect is William L. Price and in his book you can find his designs,photos,information about the pennsylvania railroad and has a lot of pages about his buildings especially about the freight terminal. The book is called william l price:arts and crafts to modern design.I can´t buy it because i don´t find it in libraries and i dont have a credit card for buy it in internet if  you buy the book could you send me the some designs and photos?thanks

[scwylder]

Thank you for the tip, esperanzaqueen. I plan to put in an Inter-Library Loan request for the book.  The DeRouin book, has some diagrams as well. If the books aren't in your library, you can normally get it through Inter-Library Loan. Price is best-known in Philadelphia and nearby Atlantic City, but it makes sense that the PRR would hire him to design this warehouse/freight house.

[dabug]

I made several trips to Chicago in the 70s to visit an old navy/railfan buddy who lived there.  One of our favorite photo sites was the Taylor St. overpass that spanned the south leads to Union Station north of Roosevelt Rd.  Taylor St. also passed right in front of the south face of the PRR freight house you are talking about.  Some slides from August 1974 facing north from Taylor St. clearly show the freight house was being demolished at that time.  Hope that helps.

Dave 

[richhotrain]

Here is a link to a nice photo of the PRR freight house.  The thing is really massive.

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=pennsylvania+railroad+chicago&hl=en&sa=G&biw=1440&bih=715&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=nf6UhusaS52o_M:&imgrefurl=http://www.billspennsyphotos.com/ratesservices.htm&docid=qRScikSz6D6YEM&w=773&h=515&ei=RQUsTpPRL8josQKJn7C3Cg&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=344&page=6&tbnh=127&tbnw=169&start=146&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:146&tx=78&ty=72

Rich