The original site of Auburn was founded in 1835 about a mile north of the present town, but when the Alton & Sangamon Railroad built a station to the south in 1852, businesses moved to the new settlement and its fortunes grew. This fledgling railroad village was first called Wineman after its founder, while the original townsite to the north was sold to a farmer and plowed under, though the Auburn name endured. In 1856 the new town was officially incorporated as Auburn. The town square became the heart of the early city, with cafes, drugstores, hardware shops, and other businesses serving residents and travelers alike, and Auburn retained the small-town character that greeted Route 66 travelers from 1924 to 1930. Built in 1905, a distinctive double-decker bandstand served as a community gathering place for music, dances, weddings, and other events until the original was torn down in the 1960s; in 2001 the community rebuilt it to preserve a notable part of local heritage. Auburn State Bank, shown on the west side of the square circa 1930, later became the home of the Auburn Citizen newspaper, which was established in 1874.