History
The Amboy Illinois Central Depot was constructed in 1876 within the right-of-way for the Illinois Central Railroad. When the Illinois Central was authorized by a Stephen A. Douglas sponsored act of Congress on September 20, 1854 it was to be the largest railroad company on earth. The act authorized a mainline from Dunleith (later East Dubuque) to Cairo and branch lines from Centralia to Chicago. Based upon the length of the divisions, Illinois Central's division headquarters was to be built in Lee County.
The railroad purchased land in the present-day city of Amboy and set up division headquarters operations as well as shop and maintenance operations. The city of Amboy was founded around Illinois Central's activity in the area. Over the next twenty years operations for the railroad's northern division were still led from the original division headquarters even as railroad activity continued to increase. The original building was enlarged in 1863, though accounts still portrayed the structure as too small for the needs of the railroad at the time. On November 15, 1875 the division headquarters building and the adjacent hotel/depot were destroyed by fire.
After the fire the railroad decided to raze the remains of the old structure and construct a new combined depot and division headquarters, leaving hotel functions to other private entrepreneurs. The burned out site was cleared and in 1876 the current Amboy Illinois Central Depot was built. Railroad management was carried out by designating divisions which had autonomous control over hundreds of miles of track, the building in Amboy was one such division headquarters. By the time the Amboy Illinois Central Depot was completed in 1876 the entire 345-mile (555 km) stretch of track from Centralia to East Dubuque was consolidated within the Illinois Central Northern Division, operated out of the Amboy building. The Amboy division headquarters had authority of 53 individual train stations.
Operations at the Amboy headquarters and depot continued in this manner until 1894. That year, Illinois Central completed an assessment of the effects of the completion of a new east-west rail line from Iowa to Chicago. Completion of the east-west line had shifted rail traffic from the north-south route through Amboy. The result was fewer scheduled passenger trains and less cargo rolling through Amboy and the railroad decided to downgrade the section of track from Freeport to Centralia (including Amboy) to a sub-division. The headquarters in Amboy were closed and the locomotive repair and maintenance facilities were mostly abandoned and relocated to Freeport, Illinois and Clinton, Illinois.
After the division headquarter moved the depot still carried out railroad functions, the building still served as a crew change location as well as the depot for the village of Amboy. The second floor was mostly abandoned after 1894 while the first floor handled the bulk of the day to day operations. As cars and buses became more popular Amboy's need for rail service could be served by the station in Dixon; passenger service to Amboy was discontinued in 1939 and the depot underwent an extensive remodeling. Operations were once again moved about the building. The northwest half of the first floor was transformed into a storage area and the second floor renovated into apartments for the station agent and employees of the nearby Green River Ordnance Plant. The station remained the transfer point for all ammunition made at the hastily constructed ammunition plant throughout World War II and the Korean War.
The mid-1980s brought the end of the Amboy Illinois Central Depot's days as an active rail building. On June 10, 1984 the Illinois Commerce Commission authorized the Illinois Central Railroad to decommission the rail line through Amboy. The railroad announced it intended to demolish the old station. The building, which is owned by a committee from the Village of Amboy, was saved by a citizens group and converted into a museum.
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