Kemper Street station was built in 1912 by the Southern Railway to house their passenger and freight operations in the Lynchburg area.

They spearheaded a redevelopment project budgeted at over $3 million, funding for which was provided by the city, commonwealth, and federal government sources including Amtrak.

Extensive work began in 2000 to update the facility, but with an emphasis on maintaining period lighting and finishes, and preserving the station's historic character.

Amtrak operations were moved to the ground-floor platform level, left vacant since the station no longer serviced freight trains.

These are of particular importance to the station since most of the trains serving Lynchburg are scheduled either late in the evening or in the early morning, often before sunrise.

October, 2009 saw the introduction of Northeast Regional daily round-trip service between Lynchburg and Boston, MA's South Station.

In June, 2016, Amtrak announced plans to add an additional daily round-trip service as part of the Northeast Regional.

The station features restrooms, an enclosed waiting area, and a ticket office staffed by Amtrak personnel.

[16] Connections for local buses operated by the Greater Lynchburg Transit Company (GLTC) are available at the bus transfer center adjacent to the station, completed in 2014.