Then & Now: The Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railroad Depot – Joliet

The Elgin, Joliet & Eastern railroad, the EJ&E, is nicknamed “The J” and at one time also was called the Outer Belt Line. About 130 years ago, a man named Philip B. Shumway had the idea to build a railroad that would run around Chicago rather than to it.

In 1886, Shumway, a Chicago promoter, took out a loan to start construction on a 22-mile rail line called the Joliet, Aurora & Northern (JA&N), which ran between those two cities. He wanted to extend his small railroad farther but needed more backing.

Shumway persuaded banker J.P. Morgan to invest and help him expand. By 1888, the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway Co. of Illinois was chartered, acquired several other small lines and then expanded to just east of Elgin and to Indiana.

Within a year, it had extended at both ends to Waukegan and into northern Indiana, although Shumway would not live to see it.

Besides hauling crude iron ore and steel products, as well as limestone used for buildings, the railroad had an advantage over other lines in the area in that it could reroute products around the congestion of the big city.

In the early years, the EJ&E also ran passenger service between Joliet and Aurora, with a combination freight and passenger train that offered trips each way between the towns in the morning and evening, six days a week.

The EJ&E essentially gave up passenger service to the electric railroads about 1910.

The Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railroad passenger depot in Joliet, shown in the Then photograph, was located on Clinton Street, just east of the tracks. The EJ&E Railway had built the limestone building in 1892, and it functioned as a depot until 1907.

In 1914, the building was used as a passenger station by the Joliet & Eastern Traction Company, which ran a streetcar business out of the building until 1923.

From 1944 to 1986, Fitzgerald’s Furniture used the building for its furniture business. The city of Joliet owns the building today, and since 1995 it has housed Fire Station #1.

The Now photograph shows a view of the old passenger depot located at 101 E. Clinton St.