Montrose developed as commerce shifted from the National Road to the St. Louis, Vandalia and Terre Haute rail line in 1870, which became the fastest, most reliable route across Illinois and brought traveling salesmen into town by rail. At the depot, their trunks, samples, and suitcases were transferred to horse-drawn drays and hauled to hotels such as the Brazil House, James House, or Steger Hotel, after which they hired horses and buggies from livery stables owned by Faber Bros. or Louis Fearington & Son and sold goods to merchants on Main Street and in nearby communities. Although Abraham Marble had established a stagecoach stop on the National Road east of present-day Montrose in 1845, commercial development accelerated only after landowner J.B. Johnson platted Montrose on the rail line in 1870. By 1873, the village included Nelson Shull's Brazil House hotel, storehouses built by Browning, Schooley, and Van Sandt, and Phillip Wiwi's general store, granary, and livestock market. Montrose prospered in the final decade of the 1800s, and by the turn of the 20th century it supported implement and blacksmith shops, a hotel, a bank, and six general stores. In 1926, the National Road became U.S. 40, a cross-country highway from Atlantic City, N.J., to San Francisco, Calif., and Montrose served motorists with four filling stations during the 1920s, including a Linco station on the west side of town and Shell and Phillips 66 stations at the east end.