A two-story railroad depot stood here from 1888 to 1939, serving the Illinois Central Railroad on its route from Freeport, Illinois, to Madison with passenger and freight service to Fitchburg. The depot included a ticket office, waiting room, freight room, and living quarters for the agent's family, and by 1922 four passenger and four freight trains passed through daily, with a small nearby platform used to load milk. The last Illinois Central freight train passed through in 1981, and other railroads continued to operate the line until the early 1990s, when the track was abandoned and eventually removed; the rail bed is now part of the Badger State Bike Trail. Fitchburg developed along this road after the Illinois Central rail line from Freeport, Illinois, to downtown Madison was completed in 1887, and through the early 1900s the growing settlement included the depot, a general store, post office, blacksmith shop, implement dealership, two implement repair garages, feed mill, lumber mill, lumber and coal yards, stockyards, cheese factory, railroad milk stop, several homes, the Illinois Central section master's residence, a small church, a nearby one-room school, and a dance hall in the basement of the general store where local people gathered for parties.