The Charlevoix Train Depot was designed by Charles Pelton & Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan, for the Chicago & West Michigan Railway and built in 1892, with construction beginning in late May and the first train arriving on June 26 before the building was quite finished. When the depot opened, the surrounding area was a dirt lot where horse-drawn taxi wagons, luggage carts, and freight carts gathered for transport to downtown hotels, homes, and businesses, with a single pine tree left for shade. In 1898 the Chicago and West Michigan Railway built the luxurious Inn above the depot; with 250 rooms, it was the second largest hotel in Michigan after the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, and it stood for more than four decades before being demolished in 1941 because of the Great Depression and a lack of parking spaces. At the same time, an indoor heated swimming pool known as a natatorium was constructed across the tracks on Lake Charlevoix for hotel guests and others paying a nominal fee, but it was torn down in 1926 after suffering from humidity damage. The Pere Marquette Railroad absorbed the Chicago & West Michigan Railroad in 1899, and in May 1929 control passed to the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway; the two companies merged in 1947 to become the C. & O. Over time, Michigan-produced Saginaw paving bricks were installed on the platforms and walkways. Passenger travel ceased in 1962, the last freight train crossed the railroad bridge in February 1982, the bridge was removed in 1983, and the last tracks were taken out in 1990. The depot, painted white from the 1930s, was donated to the Charlevoix Historical Society in 1992 and later restored in 2018 to its original 1892 paint scheme; in the early years of the 21st century, the Charlevoix Area Garden Club also created Depot Heritage Gardens beside it using historic design principles and cuttings from area plants.