By Ricky Rieckert
Dear readers,
Most individuals agree about the importance of the bridges that cross over the Fox River that divide the east and west side of Aurora.
I often thought they would have taken Sullivan Road east of Mitchell Road to Farnsworth Avenue, to reduce the traffic from Indian Trail, and maybe make it a bypass over the train tracks and over Route 25 and over Mitchell Road.
This week, I’m writing about the Old Roundhouse on North Broadway (Route 25).
As with any building, its time and purpose comes and goes. Such was the case for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Roundhouse and Locomotive Shop in Aurora.
The Roundhouse, and it’s subsequent buildings, were first opened in 1857 for servicing locomotives on the Chicago and Aurora Railroad (C&A), not to be confused with the later inter-urban railway, the Chicago Aurora & Elgin.
The C&A was the first predecessor railroad which would develop into the Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad (CB&Q), and its Chicago to Aurora route is, to this day, one of the busiest in the United States, both for freight and passenger traffic.
There were actually two round houses in the complex by the 1870s. But in 1880, fire destroyed many of the original structures.
The second Roundhouse was replaced with a new building in 1925.
When diesel engines began to replace steam engines, the importance of the roundhouse complex dwindled, but it nonetheless maintained CB&Qs fleet of Zephyr locomotives through most of the mid-20th Century.
North of the Roundhouse and the locomotive shops was the All Car Shop, that housed the paint shop, coach shop, car shop, and blacksmith shop.
But by 1974, the need for the Roundhouse complex had ceased, and it was closed by CB&Qs successor railroad, the Burlington Northern.
While most structures were demolished, the iconic Roundhouse remained upright, albeit in poor shape.
The building would lay dormant for 21 years, a reminder of the area’s manufacturing and railroad history, until 1995, when an investment group lead by Chicago Bears legend, Walter Payton, purchased the building with the intention of turning it into a restaurant.
The restaurant was called the Walter Payton Roundhouse and later America’s Historic Roundhouse. The complex had an open-air pavilion, brewery and museum, which also had some of Payton’s memorabilia in it, such as his Super Bowl XX ring.
The complex would receive a National Preservation Award October 22, 1999, 10 days before Walter Payton’s untimely death to liver cancer.
The restaurant was acquired by Two Brothers Artisan Brewing Company in 2011, which still owns it today.