The Open Steel Highway- North Shore Interurban

Description

The Open Steel Highway
Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Closing of the North Shore Interurban

Sunday January 27, 2013 3:00 pm
Lily Reid Holt Memorial Chapel, Lake Forest College

Join the Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical Society for a lecture about the North Shore Interurban railway.  What today are bike paths through Lake Forest and Lake Bluff was once the North Shore Interurban. Norman Carlson, railroad consultant and historian, will present a fascinating look at the electric railway that ran between Chicago and Milwaukee. 

The program is free to members of the Historical Society and $15 for non-members. Tickets can be purchased by visiting www.lflbhistory.org or calling 847-234-5253. A special ticket price of $50 helps to fund the conservation of a one-of-a-kind collection of glass negative images in the collection of the Historical Society.

Beginning as a streetcar company in Waukegan, the North Shore reached Evanston over 100 years ago. Lake Forest was particularly demanding in its requirements to grant a franchise. Dining cars and parlor cars graced the trains and Ravinia Park was opened by the North Shore Line in 1904 to bring passengers to the railway. In 1916, Samuel Insull assumed control and transformed the company into a legendary electric interurban railway. This program takes place almost 50 years to the day that the last train ran on this “open steel highway”.