Chicago Dearborn Station - Freight Houses

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Freight houses dated back to an era when LCL was a sizable traffic source.  Downtown freight houses in Chicago were often connected by the freight tunnels and later by truck with various retail establishments.

[richhotrain]

From the track diagrams that I have of Dearborn Station in Chicago, there were a series of freight houses for the primary tenant (Santa Fe) and the five owner railroads (Monon, Wabash, Erie, GTW, and C&EI).

A few of the railroads had as many as three freight houses. Using the terminology of the track diagrams, these structures were listed as Freight House, Inbound Freight House, and Outbound Freight House.

The Erie and C&EI had all three of these structures. At one time, Santa Fe had all three as well, but in later years, the Outbound Freight House disappeared.

GTW and Wabash had Inbound and Outbound Freight Houses, but not a Freight House. Incidentally, the Wabash Outbound Freight House was destroyed in a 1955 fire. 

Monon seemed to be an oddity when it came to these structures. At one time, it had a large Freight house at the corner of Polk Street between Clark Street and Federal Street, but by 1953 it was gone. I can find no evidence of an Inbound or Outbound Freight house.

Can someone explain how these various freight houses were used and why some railroads had all three structures while other railroads had fewer?

Thanks for any insights that you can provide.

Rich