Lincoln Station

Story

Lincoln is an Amtrak train station in Lincoln, Illinois, United States, at Broadway and Chicago Streets. Service is provided by Lincoln Service and the Texas Eagle. The station is a small brick shelter. Adjacent to the shelter is a brick Spanish Mission-style depot building, disused as of 2016, constructed by the former Chicago and Alton Railroad and later used by the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad. Although not used by Amtrak, the historic depot was renovated for commercial use and was long occupied by a restaurant. Plans were announced in June 2016 to renovate the disused depot for reopening in 2017.HistoryMany pioneers of Illinois's Logan County tried to develop towns within the county that could become the county seat and business center for local farmers. Early plats and developments include the Postville Courthouse State Historic Site and the Mount Pulaski Courthouse State Historic Site. A final decision on the county seat was not reached until 1853, when a railroad, the predecessor of what was to become the Chicago & Alton, laid tracks through the county as part of a trunk line from Chicago to St. Louis. Railroad management selected a site along the tracks for development, and named the new town after the railroad's lawyer, Abraham Lincoln.