The Denver and Rio Grande was the first railroad to reach present-day Littleton, arriving on October 28, 1871, as William Jackson Palmer built the line to connect Denver with the resort community of Colorado Springs he had just founded, with Richard Little's farm lying along the route. Cheap, quick, and reliable rail transportation expanded markets for Little's Rough and Ready Flour Mill and helped assure Littleton's prosperity. Regular service began on January 1, 1872, and after serving for a year as a flag stop, Littleton received a wood-frame depot in 1873, later replaced by the stone depot known today. A second railroad, the Denver, South Park and Pacific, later passed through Littleton west of the South Platte River on its way to the Leadville mining district, and in 1887 the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe added its own rails, further encouraging local manufacturing. Littleton's railroading heyday began in 1889 when the Denver and Rio Grande started regular commuter service to Denver on the Uncle Sam, named for its service to the newly opened army post at Fort Logan; with as many as six daily trips, the train helped transform Littleton from a quiet farming community into a bedroom suburb of Denver. New transportation modes reduced reliance on rail soon after the turn of the century, passenger service ended in 1967, freight continued until 1982, and the depot then closed. The original stone depot measured 48 feet by 24 feet and was built of rough-cut Castle Rock rhyolite, with a gabled roof, deep overhanging eaves on timber brackets with acorn-shaped finials, and round windows in each gable end, while later alterations included bay windows and a separate baggage room added to the north in 1906, enclosure between buildings and a two-lavatory lean-to on the east side in 1942, and painted exteriors, interior remodeling, and changes to many windows and doors. In 1973 the depot became eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. After operations ceased, it was threatened by the Littleton Railroad Depression project, which lowered tracks into a trench to ease downtown automobile congestion, but in 1984 the depot was moved about one-half mile to Crestline Avenue and Rio Grande Street and renovated for about $40,000, with exterior additions removed and the white paint stripped from the naturally colored rhyolite. In 1999 it was moved again to become the downtown Littleton Light Rail Station. As one of only a few surviving small stone depots in a 19th-century style, it reflects the central role railroads played in the development of Littleton and the West and has returned to service as a passenger station on the southwest light rail corridor after more than a century of serving Littleton.