[1] Its shelters were designed to resemble Puyallup's historic train depot and incorporate elements of the Craftsman architectural style.

[7][8] Puyallup's first train station was built in 1877 for the Northern Pacific Railway, shortly after the town was platted by founder Ezra Meeker.

[16][17] The city developed a shortlist of seven locations for the station in early 1994, along both the Union Pacific and BNSF railroads, and began a series of public hearings to determine which to endorse.

[19][20] In October 1994, the Puyallup city council endorsed the downtown site as its preferred location for a commuter rail station on the BNSF route.

[22] The Downtown Puyallup site was chosen by Sound Transit in early 1998 and a $688,000 contract was awarded to Merritt + Pardini Architects to design the station.

[23][24] The station's design, based on the "Craftsman" style of the old Northern Pacific depot, was scaled back in early 1999 due to a shortfall in the project's $10.6 million budget.

[25] A supplemental budget was approved later in the year, restoring the planned design of Puyallup station, and additional property acquisitions were undertaken by Sound Transit to accommodate the change.

[40][41] In 2014, Sound Transit approved a preliminary plan to build a 420-stall parking garage on property owned by the Puyallup Fraternal Order of Eagles, located west of the station's platforms, along with potential pedestrian overpasses crossing 5th Avenue and the railroad tracks.

[42] The garage project was stalled in early 2016 by the discovery of unstable soil at the site and the Eagles chapter declining to negotiate a land sale.

[48] Construction on the parking garage began in November 2020 and was originally scheduled to open by early 2022, but was delayed by several months due while awaiting safety improvements at the adjacent track crossing.