The city began to take form fifteen years later when the Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad built tracks through the area in 1856.

The following year a general store was built near the place where Parmenter Street now crosses the tracks, establishing this junction as the commercial hub of the village.

Slaughter built a warehouse just north of the tracks which served as the first railroad depot and post office.

[2] The depot is largely one of the standard designs used by the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul at that time—a rectangular single-story wood-frame building with a hip roof and broad overhanging eaves supported by knee braces.

In 1999 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places because of its architecture and also because of its association with the development of railroads in Middleton and Wisconsin.