Horse drawn omnibuses were shuttling passengers between several recently built interstate railroad stations for radiating lines like spokes of a wheel by 1853, but city/town streets, roads and turnpikes were often muddy, rutted and potholed with travel very difficult.

In 1858, omnibus operator Frank Parmelee and a group of investors were awarded a city franchise for a rail horsecar line, but legal challenges caused them to seek a state charter instead.

As with most cities which would use cable cars, the problem in flat-landed Chicago was not one of grades and steep hills and valleys, but of pure transportation capacity.

Construction began in 1881 on a system designed by William Eppelsheimer, with lines going south from the downtown area on main thoroughfare State Street and Wabash-Cottage Grove Avenues.

Counter to some people's expectations, the cable cars did not suffer much from the elements, and the harsher Chicago climate with extreme variations in summer heat and winter cold was no problem for them.

Since the cable lines were already effective, and there was opposition to wires downtown, electric cars were used to replace horsecars on feeder routes when they became available.

[12][13] By 1900, political corruption, unscrupulous actions by other companies, and public opinion made it difficult for the street railways to plan ahead.

Public ownership was discussed, but instead, city ordinances controlling the private companies were passed and appealed for years.

[14][15] In 2015 yard switcher CSL #L202 and flat car CTA #314 are at the Fox River Trolley Museum in South Elgin, Illinois.

The former cable car station and waiting room currently serves as the home of the Hyde Park Historical Society.