The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad's (CB&Q) passenger station prompted several small businesses to develop across the street.

The first major project was a state-of-the-art train station, which was designed by CB&Q architect Walter Theodore Krausch.

In the 1920s, the city of Hinsdale overhead plans by a local car dealership to build the largest automobile garage "east of the Mississippi".

To curb this plan, the city bought the proposed site and constructed a building dedicated to those who served and died in World War I.

The earliest buildings are on First and Washington Streets, which date from the 1880s and are in the Late Victorian, Italianate, and Queen Anne Styles.