Orange began as a courthouse town in 1749 and entered the railroad era in 1854 when the line from Alexandria arrived. For the next century, the railroad served as the principal artery of commerce, bringing passengers and goods to local merchants, carrying away products from Orange County farms, forests, and factories, and making the station the heart of business and commerce along Railroad Avenue and East Main Street. A great fire in 1908 destroyed the town's prime business addresses in less than 12 hours, but the railroad spurred the rebuilding of the business district within a decade, and this station was among the buildings that rose from the ashes. World War II marked Orange's last peak as a railroad center, with trains passing through on average every ten minutes day and night, but after the war rail service declined with the rise of the automobile. In 1965, on the snowy evening of February 1, steel girders being carried on three piggybacked trailers of a northbound freight train broke loose as the train rounded the curve just south of the station, struck the freight platform and passenger terminal, derailed three flatcars and the caboose, and tore through much of the terminal, though there were no casualties and repairs restored rail service within twenty-four hours. In 1979 the town failed to persuade Amtrak to establish even a flag stop, and the station closed and stood unused for 17 years until the town received title in 1993. After prolonged negotiations and the efforts of elected officials and volunteers, the building was restored and rededicated on October 12, 1997, as the Orange Transportation Center, housing the Orange County Department of Tourism and Visitor's Bureau. About one mile south of Orange, the Fat Nancy Trestle collapsed at about 4 a.m. on July 12, 1888, while construction crews were replacing it with an earth fill and a southbound passenger train crossed, killing eleven people and seriously injuring 34, including several former Confederate soldiers returning from the 25th Reunion of the Battle of Gettysburg.
