Although it continued to receive some traffic, over time it increasingly became a commuter rail depot.

The station was designed by Otto H. Matz and included both a head house and a train shed.

The most distinctive feature of the train shed was the three masonry arches fronting the wooden structure.

Architectural historian Carroll Meeks criticized the front of the head house, calling it an "ill-assorted complex of disparate elements.

Predecessors of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway (the "Big Four") reached the depot in 1872 via trackage rights from Kankakee.