Also in 1865, the Chicago & North Western Railway was laid out, and soon connected Negaunee to other parts of the state.

[2] The 1870s and into the 1880s represented a boom in construction in Negaunee; nearly thirty percent of the buildings still extant in the downtown district date from the late 1870s to 1884.

Some further construction was completed during the 1920s, but very little occurred from the Great Depression through World War II and into the postwar period.

Commercial development moved to this new corridor, and buildings in the downtown district were abandoned or fell into disrepair.

The majority of the buildings are two-story, two-part brick commercial blocks with limited architectural detailing.