Built as the center of booming railroad expansion, Elkins grew from a sleepy village into a highly accessible city after Senators Henry Gassaway Davis and Stephen B. Elkins chose it as the hub of their West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Railroad. The railroad carried coal and timber to market and linked this remote area with larger eastern cities. The city prospered through a diverse workforce and thriving commercial stores, and its growing industrial importance led it to take the Randolph County seat from the older agrarian town of Beverly. A small wooden depot erected in 1889 by the WVC&P stood on the site of the present depot until it was moved nearby to make way for the brick Romanesque Revival-style Western Maryland Railroad depot built in 1908. Key developments included the formation of the West Virginia Central & Pittsburgh Railway in 1881, the railroad's arrival in Elkins in 1889, the city's incorporation in 1890, the erection of rail yard shops in 1893-1894, Elkins's designation as county seat in 1899, the WVC&P's integration into the Western Maryland Railroad in 1905, the end of passenger service in 1958, the destruction of the Elkins roundhouse by fire in 1981, and CSX's abandonment of the Elkins to Cumberland, Maryland line in 1985.