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Research dossier · Places & Architecture

Nickel Plate Depot (Chicago)

railway station in Chicago, the United States of America

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 28, 2026
Entity authorityQ14687961 ↗
Source-derived summary

The passenger depot of the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (Nickel Plate Road) in Chicago, was located at the northwest corner of Roosevelt Road (12th Street) and Clark Street, just east of the main line of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway to its LaSalle Street Station. It operated at the Nickel Plate Depot from 1892 until 1898 when the railroad became a tenant at LaSalle, which it continued to use until it abandoned passenger service in 1965.

In 2007, Centrum Properties announced plans for a mixed-use development on the site of the rail yards with a Target department store occupying the location where the station once stood. Because of the 2008 financial crisis, much of the Roosevelt Collection remained vacant for several years after it was completed. Though the project cost Centrum $350 million to construct, it sold the complex in March 2011 for approximately $160–175 million.

Editorial summary

“Nickel Plate Depot (Chicago)” enters the record as railway station in Chicago, the United States of America. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Nickel, Plate and Depot can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1892, 1898, 1965, 2007—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Nickel, Plate and Depot.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Nickel Plate Depot (Chicago)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Nickel, Plate and Depot provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q14687961. Authority coordinates are 41.868, -87.631. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1892, 1898, 1965 and 2007.

Critical limits

Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Nickel Plate Depot (Chicago)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Nickel Plate Depot (Chicago) primary sources, Nickel Plate Depot (Chicago) archive and Nickel research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Nickel Plate Depot (Chicago)”?
  2. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
  3. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Nickel Plate Depot (Chicago)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.