Coal and glass needed a way out of town, and in the 1800s that meant railroads. At one time Streator was served by several lines, an interurban trolley and a busy Santa Fe passenger station. Here is how the rails shaped the city. Start with our History of Streator for the big picture.
Railroads Before Everything Else
When Worthy S. Streator and Ralph Plumb opened the Vermilion Coal Company’s mines in 1866, they knew coal was worthless without rail access. Their first hope, getting the American Central railroad to bend its route toward their mines, fell through, so the Fox River line provided the first service. Others followed quickly: the Chicago and Alton’s Dwight Division in 1870, then the Chicago, Pekin and Southwestern, and the Chicago and Paducah. With several competing outlets, Streator’s mines could ship cheaply, which made the town attractive to industry. More on this on our coal mining page.
The Santa Fe Arrives
Streator later became a stop on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway’s main line between Chicago and Kansas City, the route that continued on to Los Angeles. The Santa Fe station on North Illinois Street handled many passenger trains in its heyday, and during World War II it was the scene of the famous Streator Free Canteen.
The Interurban Years
In the early 1900s electric interurbans linked many Illinois towns. The Chicago, Ottawa and Peoria Railway, an interurban line along the Illinois Valley that later became part of the Illinois Traction System, built a branch to Streator in 1908. It gave residents an easy electric ride to Ottawa and the rest of the Illinois Valley. As cars and paved roads spread, ridership fell, and the Streator branch was abandoned in 1929.
Amtrak and the Southwest Chief
Passenger service outlasted the interurban by decades. After Amtrak took over intercity passenger trains in 1971, its Southwest Chief between Chicago and Los Angeles kept stopping at Streator daily. That ended in 1996. After the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe merged, BNSF built a connection near Cameron, Illinois, and Amtrak rerouted the train onto the former Burlington main line, bypassing Streator and Chillicothe. The depot still stands. BNSF gave it a new roof, brickwork and windows in 2013, and the Free Canteen monument stands beside it.
Freight Railroads Today
Streator remains a freight railroad town. Norfolk Southern, BNSF and the Illinois Railway all serve the city, keeping it connected to national markets. For drivers, Illinois Routes 18 and 23 cross in town, and the nearest interstate highways are a short drive away.
Why the Depot Matters
For nearly a century, the Santa Fe depot was where Streator met the outside world. Immigrants arrived there, soldiers left from there, and during World War II more than a million and a half service members passing through got a meal on its platform. When the last Amtrak train stopped in 1996, that era ended, but the restored building and its monument remain.
Tracing the Old Lines
Some old rights-of-way are still visible around Streator as embankments, tree lines and grade crossings. And because the town grew up around rail access, the railroads still shape the street grid and the locations of its old factories.
Related Streator History
- Streator History Overview
- Streator's Coal Mining Era: The Vermilion Coal Company and Its Miners
- The Streator Free Canteen: Feeding 1.5 Million WWII Troops
- Streator Glass History: From Streator Bottle & Glass to Owens-Illinois
Sources
- Streator station – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streator_station
- Chicago, Ottawa and Peoria Railway – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago,_Ottawa_and_Peoria_Railway
- Worthy S. Streator – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worthy_S._Streator
- Streator, Illinois – Wikipedia (Transportation; Coal and cityhood). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streator,_Illinois
