Prior to being a rapid transit station, the site was the location of the Windermere Car Barn of the
Cleveland Railway and its successor, the
Cleveland Transit System (CTS). As streetcars were retired in favor of buses, Windermere also became a bus garage. On February 4, 1952, CTS broke ground for its rapid transit behind the Windermere Car Barn, on the same embankment as the
Nickel Plate railway tracks. The new station, called simply "Windermere Station," opened with the CTS Rapid Transit on March 15, 1955. As originally constructed, the station included on the embankment level a car yard and car shops for rapid transit and a loop to allow trains to turn around if needed (although the car sets all had operator cabs are both ends). On the south side below the tracks, there was a fare collection
headhouse, three bus loading loops and a small free parking lot off Euclid Avenue, along with an elevated walkway over the bus loops to the Euclid Avenue parking lot. A pedestrian tunnel beneath the embankment carrying rapid transit and railway tracks connected the station to a larger free parking lot on the northwest side of the tracks. The entrance to the northwest parking lot was from Hayden Avenue. The Hayden bus garage was also built adjacent to the northwest lot to replace the Windermere Car Barn. The Windermere car shops were abandoned when RTA opened its new $23-million Central Rail Maintenance Facility opened on April 29, 1984, on a site at
East 55th Street. The turnaround loop and the car shops were eliminated. In November 1997, RTA renamed the station “Louis Stokes Station at Windermere” in honor of the Congressman
Louis Stokes “for his many years of unwavering support.” It was the first Head Start Center in Greater Cleveland built next to a rapid transit station, making the facility accessible for many of the families eligible for Head Start who do not have cars. == Nearby places ==