The Chicago Transit Authority celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Purple Line’s completion at an event outside historic Linden Station Saturday afternoon.
The anniversary celebration, organized by the CTA, Wilmette Historical Society and the Wilmette Chamber of Commerce featured a live band, historical displays and the CTA Historic Train as well as a speech by the president of the CTA, Forrest Claypool.
Claypool told the story of the Purple Line’s controversial completion process, in which the transit company that preceded the CTA snuck into Wilmette on “April Fool’s night” and finished the rail line’s extension despite opposition from the village’s citizens.
They were worried about an onslaught of “picnickers from the city,” said Claypool, leading to “the midnight raid, kind of like Meigs Field.”
Rachel Kuhn, director of publicity and programs for the Wilmette Historical Museum, explained that sentiment has since changed about the El in Wilmette. She also stressed that the El, which saw more than 300,000 riders at Linden this past year according to the CTA, played a large part in developing a once solely residential area.
“It’s really created this whole commercial district,” Kuhn said.
Kuhn and others at the event had the chance to board the CTA Historic Train, a 1923 era CTA train restored to historic standards that travelled on the Purple Line through the 1970s.
This week will mark another milestone for the CTA. The new Oakton station on the Yellow Line will open early Monday morning. A previous station existed at this location but was closed in 1948 and demolished in 1964.