The Calumet Electric Railway

The Calumet Electric Street Railway Company operated on the South Side, with its main power house, office, and car barn at 93rd and Drexel from 1892 to 1909. The railway was established in May, 1890 and ran through a mostly vacant and swampy area of southwest Chicago. With the World's Columbian Exposition, came the prospect of potential real estate development in the southern portion of the city.

Map of the Calumet Electric Street Railway with the Burnside facility highlighted.

In 1892, real estate developer, William Jacobs secured a controlling interest in the railway and saught to expand operations, forming a stronger network to south side communities like Burnside, Kensigton, Pullman, South Chicago, and Dauphin Park to the Fair and central Chicago as well as to each other. To this end, a new office, storage facility and power house were constructed to Silsbee's plans at Burnside.

Silsbee's Calumet Electric Railway Poer House, constructed in 1892.

Funding for expendatures of this expansion were loaned through the National Bank of Illinois, run by Joseph Silsbee client William Hammond. This loan was at the center of the bank's collapse in 1896 as the bank had invested in the Calumet without having sufficient funds to do so. This ultimately led to Hammond's disgrace and suicide.

Jacobs maintained ownership in the railway until 1906. During his period of ownership, the railway never saw the success that was hoped for. Because of the economic panic of 1893, when the first rounds of improvements were made, no additional investment went into real estate speculation on the far south side of Chicago. Another round of improvements began in the mid-1890's as the area around Burnside began co capitolize on industrial development but even this proved to be too small to sustain the company. During this period, Silsbee oversaw expansion of the Burnside facility and likely other components of the railway system.

The Burnside facility for the Calumet Electric in the late 1890's

In many ways, Silsbee's railway work seems tangential to the central part of his business, which seemed to be residential design but there is enough evidence to suggest that not he both a successful and competint designer in this area. The concurrence of work on the Calumet with his work on the Moving Sidewalk at the World's Fair exhibits a technologically inventive side to Silsbee's personality that rarely mentioned and not fully understood. He has multiple patents related to railway construction and this work led to commissions for several industrial production facilities.