Madison was a rapid transit station on the Chicago "L"'s Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad, serving its Logan Square branch from 1895 to 1951.

Given the proximity of the site to Chicago Stadium and its successor the United Center, there have been several attempts at reviving the station, especially after the opening of the Pink Line.

[2] The Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad Company was granted a 50-year franchise by the Chicago City Council on April 7, 1892,[3] and began securing right of way shortly thereafter.

Although it had originally intended to, and indeed had built much of its structure under the assumption that locomotives would be used,[9] it decided in May 1894 to have electrified tracks instead,[10] making it upon its opening the first electric elevated railroad in the United States.

[11] The Metropolitan's tracks on the Logan Square branch were finished by the middle of October 1894, and were powered on in April 1895 for test and inspection runs.

[22] 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 bypass the southern part of the branch and provide a more direct route from Logan Square to downtown.

[22] 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.

[22] 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 Congress superhighway (the eventual Interstate 290).

[25] 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,[26] and as late as 1949 commuters were promised such a setup that would have preserved the old Logan Square trackage.

[28] After the war ended, work resumed on the Dearborn Street subway and it opened at midnight Sunday, February 25, 1951; it was predicted to reduce the travel time between Logan Square and downtown from 28 minutes to 15.

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

[28] Despite its incomplete state, and complaints from riders no longer given a direct trip to the Near West Side,[29][30] the new subway had over 60 percent higher ridership than the old Logan Square branch by the end of the year.

[34] This use continued until the Congress Line was complete in 1958, connecting with the Douglas branch to form the "West-Northwest Route",[35] after which the Connector returned to non-revenue use only.

[37] The Chicago Bulls, housed in the United Center, planned in 2012 to build a $95 million complex in the area based on possible tax breaks.

[40][41] The station was designed by the Metropolitan's engineers and constructed by the Jonathan Clark and Sons Company for general contractor Alfred Walcott.

In common with stations throughout the Metropolitan's system, the platforms and stairs were wooden on a steel structure, and had canopies with iron frames and tin hipped roofs.

[13] Station agents on the Metropolitan were originally on duty 24 hours a day; fare collection by on-train conductors was adopted on the Northwest[a] between 1931 and 1934 and again during 1936 and 1937.