| The Beverly Shores station was built in 1929 by the
Chicago, South Shore & South Bend RR, an electric interurban line owned
by Samual Insull. The Spanish Colonial Revival style was a refreshing change
of style for midwest stations of the era. The station had a small waiting
room, ticket office, and a residence for the station agent.
At one time there were ten other stations just like Beverly
Shores, some built as mirror images. The Lake Shore
station, just west of Beverly Shores, was one such station . It was torn
down sometime in the 1990's. Nine other stations were built by the Insull
owned, Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee, in 1926 as part of its new Skokie
Valley bypass. Stations there included Harmswood, Glennayre,
Northbrook, Briergate, Sheridan Elms and Skokie
Manor. Most stations were torn down when the North Shore was abandoned in
1963. Only Briergate, in Highland Park, IL, remains,
now with a large commercial addition covering two sides. .
Summer of 1997 saw the last intact Insull Spanish style
station, Beverly Shores, boarded up, with a badly leaking roof, in a slow
slide back to nature.(front door)
(front)
(back)
Commuter service on the South Shore is now handled by the
Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation
District. They obtained federal funding for a restoration of Beverly
Shores. In 1998 the depot was totally rebuilt. The roof was stripped off.
Rotten boards were replaced, copper flashing and gutters were installed,
and the tiles replaced. Exterior stucco was repaired, and the outside was
repainted. On the inside, 4 feet of water and two 4 foot long snakes
were removed from the basement. Walls and plaster were repaired. The water
damage was so bad, the contractor said it would have been easier to tear
the building down and start over. Most of the studs inside the walls were
rotten. They had to be cut out and replaced, one by one.
The waiting room is still used for its original purpose.
The part of the building which was the residence was converted to
a museum/art galery, The Beverly Shores
Depot Museum and Art Gallery. |
