Then and Now, Montrose-Elston

In the early decades of the 20th century, when most people got around the city on public transit, businesses liked to locate at streetcar transfer points. In 1972 this intersection still featured buildings from that early era. The 1910-vintage building on the left has a grocery. The newer brick building across Montrose houses a first-floor liquor store.

Today part of that 1910 building has been replaced by a modern brick structure—which has a grocery, in the form of a convenience store. The brick building on the intersection’s southeast corner is still there, though now it has an electronics store. With CTA service gone from Elston Avenue, this is no longer a transfer point.

—30—