Items from historic Loop CTA station up for auction

You can own a little piece of Chicago history.

Bits and pieces of the historic Madison and Wabash CTA station will be up for auction Friday.

The “L” station, which opened in 1896, was closed and demolished earlier this year as the Chicago Transit Authority plans to combine two “L” stops to form a new station at Wabash and Washington.

Up for auction Friday is 119-year-old lumber from the original platform, pressed tin squares, station-house doors, iron screens, a bench, and other items, said Kelly Farley, the executive director of Rebuilding Exchange, the group hosting the auction.

Starting prices for the items up for auction range from $25 to $1,000, she said.

“You’re able to have the story of the piece while also giving it a new narrative and giving it a new life while keeping it out of the landfill,” Farley said of the items up for grabs.

Also displayed will be pieces of the station’s original facade, which preservationists hope will one day be displayed in a museum.

The “L” and its stations gave the city’s downtown it’s name — the Loop — and preservationists hope the unique, historic stations don’t all meet the same fate as Madison and Wabash.

“This is an architectural component of our city and it speaks so, so strongly about what Chicago is,” said Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago. “Could you think about anything that’s more Chicago . . . than the Chicago Loop elevated?”

The auction is 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Friday at Rebuilding Exchange, 1740 W. Webster.

Grates from the Madison and Wabash station in the Loop also can be purchased at the auction. | Rebuilding Exchange photo

Pressed-tin tiles from the station will be auctioned off. | Rebuilding Exchange photo