Conservatory-Central Park Dr
3600W
300N
300N
Conservatory-Central Park Drive (need platform photos) opened on June 30, 2001 as an infill station designed to draw tourists to the nearby Garfield Park Conservatory as well as be located directly between Kedzi and Pulaski. It directly replacing the Homan station located two blocks each of here that closed with the Green Lines full reconstruction in 1994 and never reopened. There was also once a station at Hamlin that closed in 1956 two blocks west. The stop though has the remains of the Homan Station with its historic 1894 station houses that were relocated here. (Full history on Chicago L.org).
The station has two side platforms with the relocated 1894 station houses at their western ends. The full-length of both platforms is canopied with a replica design of small circular white pillars in the middle of the platform holding up an angled roof. For half the length of the platform, the platform railings (closest to the depot) have a replica victorian designs in green and white while the other half the railings are simple mesh. The two relocated station houses each have turnstiles inside their original wood paneled interiors. A simple pedestrian bridge connects the station houses and platforms with steps but this bridge isn't open to the general public, just employees. This allows one customer assistant (or security guard, that are slowly getting phased in) to staff the station and both platforms without having to go to street level and cross the street. This means for regular passengers there is no free change of direction transfer. The station houses each have high exit turnstiles outside of them that allow exiting passengers to avoid entering the small interiors (portions of these buildings are also non-public areas with doors outside of them). These lead to an elevator in a modern white shaft and a covered modern staircase down to the NW corner from the outbound platform, and SW from the inbound of Conservatory Drive and Lake Street. There is a second exit at the other end of each platform to each side of Lake Street just east of Central Park Avenue. These consist of a high fare card only turnstile on each platform that leads down to a covered staircases.
Photos 1-12 taken on 2 November, 2011, 13-33 on 4 July, 2013
