The Michigan Central Railroad Depot in Niles, a Richardsonian Romanesque-style station constructed in 1892 by the Michigan Central Railroad Company, was designed by the Detroit firm of Spier and Rohns to create a lasting impression of Michigan for passengers traveling to the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Built mostly of Ohio sandstone, it replaced a ramshackle earlier structure that the Niles Daily Star called "the old cockroach repository." Its grounds included a pond and gardens designed by German immigrant John Gipner, who gave roses grown at the station to women arriving in Niles. The depot later appeared in several feature films, including The Continental Divide, Midnight Run, and Only the Lonely. Railroad service had first reached Niles on October 2, 1848, when the Michigan Central Railroad Company became the first railroad to enter the city, beginning what was called an era of prosperity. Other rail lines soon followed, but by the 1920s automobiles, buses, and trucks were challenging railroad dominance. In the 1930s the New York Central Railroad Company took control of the Michigan Central Railroad Company during nationwide consolidation, branch lines were eliminated, and the transfer of freight operations to Elkhart, Indiana, in 1958 further reduced rail traffic through Niles. Amtrak's arrival in 1974 preserved passenger service and continued Niles' railroad connection into the twenty-first century.