Occasionally, a construction project will temporarily expose old streetcar rails which had otherwise been paid over. Such was the case at the intersection of 92nd Street and Commercial Avenue in 1998. But this exposure was only temporary.
This building, a short distance west of downtown Chicago, was originally a cable car powerhouse. The concrete panels around the first floor were not originally part of the building.
Immediately north of downtown Chicago, another former cable car powerhouse building became famous as Michael Jordan's Restaurant. But the restaurant eventually closed, and a new restaurant subsequently began occupying the space.
On Chicago's south side, the northeast corner of this intersection was once the location of a cable car powerhouse. At this corner, the 55th St. branch of the Cottage Grove route had turned east. The corner is now occupied by a University of Chicago Hospitals clinic building, which is set some distance away from the street, with a significant sized lawn in front. Supposedly, the lawn exists because with the old cable car infrastructure underneath, the area would have been structurally unsafe to construct new buildings upon.
This building was at the east end of the 55th St. cable car route, where it looped at Lake Park Ave. The building sits against the embankment of the former Illinois Central Railroad, now Metra Electric, and it now serves as the Hyde Park Historical Society. Historical records remain unclear whether it was constructed for the cable car line or for the Illinois Central Railroad. But the building was used by railroad passengers, perhaps in reality by passengers riding either system. Hyde Park was originally a suburb of Chicago, annexed to the city in 1889, but the neighborhood continues to be commonly known as Hyde Park.