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player ready...Deerfield’s train station at 860 Deerfield Road seemed to have reached the end of the line.
In 1973, 70 years after it was built, it was destined for demolition. “The Deerfield Station is typical of many built throughout the plains states,” noted a WBBM-Ch. 2 news report at the time. “Most gone now, many others in ruins. It is run down, nothing very important happened here. It is an architectural copy, not a wonder.”
But something very important did happen here. The Deerfield community rallied to save the more-than-century-old wooden structure that had survived a fire in 1918. While the Urban Mass Transportation Administration considered the building “an eyesore,” according to a baiduhai report, the Deerfield Area Historical Society engineered a campaign to rehab and remodel the station rather than see an architecturally generic concrete block structure be erected in its place. Members of the local Jaycees volunteered their time to paint and restore the station.
“I hope they make it,” editorialized Channel 2 News personality Bob Wallace said at the time. “We don’t have an awful lot of history around this area and what we do have I think it wouldn’t hurt if it was preserved.”
They made it; in 1974 the village was granted approval for $65,000 in federal funds to renovate the station.
Designed by architect Jay W. Nettenstrom, the Craftsman/Prairie-style structure was built in 1903 to replace a station built in 1872 two blocks to the south. There was a previous station, a boxcar that was parked near Central Avenue.
The station underwent a further restoration that began in 1996 and ended in November 1998, the year it attained landmark status by being added to the National Register of Historic Places. The station is now set to get a new oak floor and cedar roof, projects expected to be completed by the end of this year.
“The downtown train station is a time-honored symbol with architecture that serves to remind the community of the village’s early origin and founding,” noted Assistant Village Manager Andrew Lichterman.
“The station,” added Tom Roth, former president of the historical society in a separate interview, “is a symbol of a pivotal time for Deerfield. It represents the incorporation of the town, which was a bold step forward. The train was the lifeblood of the town, ushering in prospective residents as well as building materials.”
Roth, an architect who now lives in Chicago, lauds the grass-roots efforts over the recent decades to persuade the village to remodel instead of “remuddle” the station, and preserve it “the right way,” maintaining the station’s architectural integrity. “I think everyone appreciates the building,” he said. “It’s a source of pride.”
Donald Liebenson is a freelance writer.
The Deerfield Station
Address: 860 Deerfield Road, Deerfield
Architect: Jay W. Nettenstrom
Architectural style: Craftsman/Prairie
Building age: It was built in 1903
Original and current use: Train station
Did you know? The local Baha’i community planted a flower garden in front of the station in 1975 and members continue to maintain it. Sept. 21, 2015 was declared Train Station Garden Day.