The first station on the site opened on October 10, 1852, with an extension of the
Chicago and Rock Island Railroad from 22nd Street. At this point, the
Northern Indiana and Chicago Railroad (future LS&MS) had a depot at 12th Street, alongside another Rock Island depot. In December 1866 a new station opened, and the
Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Railroad joined the Rock Island as a tenant. The
Great Chicago Fire of October 1871 destroyed the station, which was rebuilt shortly afterwards. The post-fire station was demolished to make way for a new station designed by the architectural firm
Frost & Granger which opened July 1, 1903 and stood until 1981. This station was a set for Alfred Hitchcock's 1959
North by Northwest, starring
Cary Grant and
Eva Marie Saint, and in the 1973 movie
The Sting starring
Paul Newman and
Robert Redford. From its completion in 1882, the
New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (Nickel Plate Road) ran over the
Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway from a junction at
Grand Crossing neighborhood north to downtown Chicago, where it had
its own terminal south of LaSalle between 1892 and 1898. The LS&MS quickly gained control of the Nickel Plate, and later allowed it into its LaSalle Street Station as a tenant. In July 1916, the by-then New York Central sold the Nickel Plate to the
Van Sweringens, but it continued to operate into LaSalle until the end of Nickel Plate passenger service. being pulled out of LaSalle Street Station by the Commodore Vanderbilt locomotive From July 31, 1904, to August 1, 1913, trains of the
Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad also used LaSalle Street Station, which reached it via trackage rights on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific from Ashburn. During this period, the C&EI was operated by the
St. Louis–San Francisco Railway, which was itself controlled by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific from 1901 to 1916. On January 18, 1957, trains of the
Michigan Central Railroad began serving LaSalle, operating on the
New York Central Railroad's
Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway from its former crossing at
Porter, Indiana to Chicago. LS&MS and Michigan Central trains (both part of the New York Central system) last used LaSalle on October 26, 1968 (soon after the merger into
Penn Central); the next day, it began operation into
Union Station via a connection in
Whiting, Indiana and the
Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway. Amtrak came into existence on May 1, 1971, taking over most intercity rail service across the nation. However, LaSalle was unaffected: Penn Central's services via former New York Central tracks had been relocated to Union Station as noted above. The Rock Island opted out of Amtrak and continued to operate
intercity service in the form of the
Quad Cities Rocket and
Peoria Rocket, operating to Rock Island and Peoria, respectively. These final intercity trains serving LaSalle made their final trips on December 31, 1978, ending the station's role as a terminal for intercity passenger trains. A connection at
Englewood Union Station was completed on October 15, 1971, to allow the Rock Island to also operate over the PFW&C to Union Station, but the failing Rock Island decided to continue using LaSalle. The Rock Island ended intercity passenger service in 1978, but continued operating its commuter trains until handing them to the
Chicago and North Western Railway in 1980. Only a year later, C&NW handed the former Rock Island commuter lines to the RTA's newly formed operating arm, the Northeast Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad Corporation. It became part of the RTA Commuter Rail Division, now Metra, in 1984. From 1972–75 the Rock Island operated a restaurant called Track One, using two former railroad cars parked on track 1 at the station. The two cars, the
dining car Golden Harvest and the club-lounge
Pacific Shore, had previously served on the
Golden State Limited. In June 2011, The
Chicago Department of Transportation opened the LaSalle/Congress Intermodal Transfer Center alongside the station as a bus terminal, to serve people transferring to CTA buses as well as Blue Line trains at
LaSalle. On Father's Day weekend in June 2017,
Nickel Plate 765 became the first steam locomotive to enter LaSalle Street Station since
Southern Railway 4501 visited the station in 1973. The 765 pulled trips to
Joliet, Illinois over Metra's Rock Island District dubbed the
Joliet Rocket. One of the cars in this excursion train was the former New York Central observation car
Hickory Creek, a car built for the
20th Century Limited, which hadn't been to the station since December 3, 1967. Of note, the
Hickory Creek was the last car on the final run of the
20th Century Limited to leave LaSalle on December 3, 1967. ==Future plans==