Cowpens Depot was built in 1896 by the Southern Railway and originally stood one block north at Brown and Church Streets. It replaced an 1873 depot on the Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line Railway, which later merged into the Southern. The depot served passengers into the 1950s and handled freight until 1967. It was moved in 1982, renovated and opened as the Cowpens Museum and Civic Center in 1985, and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.