American railroad stations use to be an all too common site in our country, as almost every town, large and small, could claim one, which was because of the fact that railroads once went almost everywhere, reaching almost any and every town.

In the beginning, the promise of a rail line passing through town often meant boom or bust for any settlement.

Railroad station buildings, or depots, were often the center of activity and communications for small-towns in America. In the years before the automobile, the railroad depot was the only means to the outside world for most people.

Not only could you use the building to board your train to far away places, but it also was where the goods you purchased were delivered. In some remote towns, the station agent lived in the depot.

In fact, in a small town like Manhattan, the station agent handled all the duties required of the railroads. They were ticket agent, baggage handler, mail sorter and more. But their most important duty was receiving telegraphic orders for trains and passing them on to train crews.

The typical small town depot was rectangular in shape and paralleled the railroad tracks. At one end was the freight room, which had a pair of scales for weighing items that needed to be shipped. At the other end of the building was a waiting room with benches for passengers, and usually equipped with a pot-bellied or coal-burning stove for heat.

In Manhattan, the opening of the Wabash Railroad in 1880 led to the establishment of the village. When the railroad began service in 1880, the first depot was located near the intersection of the two primary roads in the township, the Joliet Road (U.S. Route 52) and the Manhattan-Monee Road.

In 1881, John Whitson and the Trask family subdivided some of their property around the depot, which soon became the core of the Manhattan business district.

Business development occurred rapidly around the new depot, including a boarding house and a blacksmith shop. With growth, Manhattan was organized into a village in 1886.

By 1905, an additional railway line was added when the Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota Railway (later to be known as the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad) was built through the town to connect the towns of Joliet and Kankakee.

When these tracks were laid, a small wooden depot was constructed near the Central Park pond on the west side of the tracks.