The ticket office and waiting area are in the south side station house (the eastbound platform).

It was the westernmost station on the line with ADA accessibility, until Somerville's new high-level platforms were opened on December 7, 2010.

[7] Plainfield station was originally built by Bradford L. Gilbert and Joseph Osgood for the Central Railroad of New Jersey in 1902.

As with the rest of the CNJ, the station was subsidized by the New Jersey Department of Transportation in 1964 and absorbed into Conrail in 1976.

It been listed in the state and federal registers of historic places since 1984 and along with Netherwood is part of the Operating Passenger Railroad Stations Thematic Resource.