The site of the station is near the junction of the Paulina Connector – the descendant of the old Logan Square trackage – and the Lake Street Elevated, which was used for temporary and non-revenue service until the Pink Line opened in 2006 and returned it to revenue status.

[18] The Metropolitan's tracks on the Logan Square branch[d] were finished up to Robey by the middle of October 1894, and were given power in April 1895 for test and inspection runs.

[12] The Metropolitan began service at 6:00 a.m. on Monday, May 6, 1895, between Robey on the Logan Square branch and Canal on the main line.

[21] CER instituted full integration of crosstown service on the "L" and free transfers between the lines in 1913, having been mandated to do so by the City Council.

[2] As part of the same plan to streamline Lake Street service, the Ashland station one block east of the transfer was closed but remained standing.

[2] The Logan Square branch would not begin skip-stop until the opening of the Dearborn Street subway and the closing of the transfer in 1951.

[30] Chicago petitioned the Public Works Administration (PWA) for construction funds for a subway on State Street in 1937.

[32] Harold L. Ickes, the administrator of the PWA and a longtime Chicagoan, vetoed the streetcar tunnel plan and insisted instead on a second subway that would go under Dearborn Street and Milwaukee Avenue, which would provide a more direct route from Logan Square to downtown.

[32] Although this idea engendered considerable local opposition, especially from mayor Edward Joseph Kelly, Ickes's influence in the federal government led to the Dearborn plan being adopted in 1938.

[32] A 1939 plan also introduced the idea of replacing the Metropolitan's main line and Garfield Park branch with a section of rapid transit operating through a proposed superhighway on Congress Street (the eventual I‑290).

[35] Damen Tower serving the Humboldt Park branch divergence was rebuilt with the expectation that it also would switch trains between the subway and the elevated, much like the State Street subway connects with the earlier elevated North Side main line that remained standing after its construction,[36] and as late as 1949 commuters were promised such a setup that would have preserved the old Logan Square trackage.

[20] Since construction had not started on the Congress Line, trains in the Dearborn subway stopped at its southern terminus at LaSalle and turned back.

[20] Despite its incomplete state, and complaints from riders no longer given a direct trip to the Near West Side,[38][39] the new subway had over sixty percent higher ridership than the old Logan Square branch by the end of the year.

[41] Construction on the Congress Line began in 1954, leaving the Douglas branch with the issue of how to connect with the Loop in the meantime.

[44][45] The Paulina Connector – both the original Metropolitan tracks and the newer Washington Junction – remained in non-revenue service.

[48] The construction of the Lake Street Elevated's stations was contracted to Frank L. Underwood of Kansas City and Willard R. Green of New York.

The station house, made of red pressed brick and white limestone trim, was designed similarly to other stations on the Logan Square branch, surviving examples of which are at California and Damen, with a corniced and dentiled front bay containing dual doors specifically marked "Entrance" and "Exit" and prolific use of terra cotta.

Its wooden platforms had hipped roof tin canopies in the center and decorative cast-iron railings with diamond designs.

Auxiliary exits onto Hermitage Avenue were located on the middle of the Lake Street platforms at the western ends of their canopies.

[61] After the transfer station was abandoned, streetcar service on Lake Street was cut back from downtown on November 15, 1953, and replaced by buses on May 30, 1954.

[64] Once the transfer was in place, the two lines' contributions to station ridership were roughly equal, with the Lake Street edging out the Metropolitan each year.