Town Hall Station

 by: chicago designslinger

 [Town Hall Police Station (1907) /Image & Artwork: chicago designslinger]

As you cross the intersection of Addison & Halsted Streets on your way to Wrigley Field, Whole Foods, or the bars in Boystown, you can't help but notice this handsome brick building on the northwest corner. Built in 1907, the Town Hall Police Station was constructed to house the members of the 42nd Precinct of the Chicago Police Department. Now, after 104 years of service, the building sits empty, someday to be integrated into a new senior housing development for members of the LGBT community.

  [Town Hall Station, 42nd Police District, 3600 N. Halsted Street, Chicago /Image & Artwork: chicago designslinger]

Although technically the 42nd Precinct House, the building was called Town Hall Station from the get go. In 1871 this corner was well outside the borders of the city of Chicago, sitting close to the middle of Lake View Township, an area almost as large as Chicago itself. Lake View had been chartered in the 1850s, and by the early 1870s had enough of a population to warrant the construction of a town hall. The building was substantial: 3 stories with a high basement; a large stair/porch up to the second, main floor where the hall was located; with a tall central cupola to top things off. Lake View received their city charter in 1887, then 2 years later, the citizens of the City of Lake View agreed to annexation by their southern neighbor in a close vote.

  [Town Hall Station, 42nd Police District, Lake View, Chicago /Image & Artwork: chicago designslinger]

After Lakeview became part and parcel of the ever expanding city of Chicago, the old town hall was turned into the new station house of the 42nd Precinct, but everyone still called the 42nd, Town Hall. In 1906, the City Council voted to fund the construction of 8 new police stations, and one of them would be built at Addison & Halsted. The old, Lake View building stood farther back from the corner, so the new building was built before the old one was torn down.
The officers were very happy to move into the new, modern facility, and in 2011, the officers of the now 23rd District were happy to do the same. Town Hall was the oldest operating police district building in Chicago, and although the officers only moved 100 feet to the west on Addison, it was miles away from where they had spent the past 100 years.