Previously, a station existed at this location which was in operation as part of the North Shore Line's Niles Center Route from 1925 until 1948, and later demolished in 1964.

The line entered operation on March 28, 1925, but did not encourage much development before the Great Depression and World War II, put a halt to building activity for 20 years.

On Monday, April 20, 1964, the Chicago Transit Authority reinstated service on the Niles Center Branch as a nonstop shuttle between Howard and Dempster, dubbed the Skokie Swift.

Since the Swift began operating in 1964, there had been interest on the part of the Village of Skokie and its citizens to reestablish at least one of the local stations.

Then, in early December 2005, Skokie learned they would receive an additional $9.2 million in federal grant funds to construct the station.

The entire project is estimated to cost about $15 million including any land acquisition needed, which means the village had by this time secured more than two-thirds of the funding.

The village sought proposals from firms for design work for the new station, eventually awarding the contract to McDonough Associates.

Finally in 2007, after extensive deliberation, the Village of Skokie initiated eminent domain proceedings against two landowners (an auto repair shop and a truck rental business) to make room adjacent to the station for a "kiss and ride" area, a bus turnaround and a taxi drop-off area.

Station agents were discontinued at Oakton in 1927, by which time it had achieved 759 riders in the year, meaning that station-specific ridership information was no longer available and passengers gave their fare to on-train conductors instead.