Putting Two and Two Together, or Ghosts of the Past

A couple days ago, the lock froze on the gate that leads from my parking space to my back stairs, so I was forced to walk around to my front gate through an abandoned lot a couple of doors down. I've wondered from time to time why that lot is still empty and why there are six large concrete blocks lined up across its length. Because it's across the street from an old embroidery company, I figured they must have been used for some forgotten industrial purpose. Here's a picture of the front two concrete slabs I took with my phone -- you can make them out on either side of the brush surrounding the tree:



A couple of days later, I was reading about the old Paulina Connector, an abandoned L line currently being partially refurbished. In the early part of the last century, the Paulina Connector joined the Douglas, Lake and Logan L lines along Paulina Street and helped to funnel traffic into the Loop. Now, the section between the Lake and the Congress L's is being rebuilt as part of a planned Cirlce L line.

As I was reading about the old Paulina line, I began to think that it must have run pretty close to my house on the stretch between the Grand and Chicago stations, as Paulina Street is only a half block away. And then it hit me -- the equally spaced concrete blocks in the vacant lot must be a remnant of the old L line, which means the L used to run a lot closer to my building than I ever imagined (enough to rattle the windows in my bedroom, I'm guessing). To confirm my suspicion I investigated the same stretch on Erie, Huron and Superior, and while there aren't any other vacant lots with L remnants, the same vertical path on those streets does always contain new construction.

Which leaves me to wonder -- does the CTA still own my local vacant lot?