The building was completed in 1916 when the railroad embankment through town was elevated above street level to eliminate hazardous grade crossings.

[5]: 80 The 1916 station was built of brick and stone in the current Beaux-Arts architecture style with a vitrified tile waiting room[5]: 89  and monumental wooden benches.

Originally the platform surfaces were level with the floors of the railroad passenger cars,[4] but they were later lowered to the level of the track, reportedly due to substandard lateral clearances between the platforms and carbodies caused by the tracks' partially curved alignment when lengthier cars came into use; the change further spared train crews the inconvenience of having to lower and raise trap doors over the coach stairwells for this single station alone when platform levels of the other stations on this commuter route (possibly excepting East Liberty) were not elevated to match.

The station's strategic location visible down Ross Ave. was negated when that street's motor traffic was made one-way in the opposite direction.

Its long-distance passenger service was assumed by Amtrak on May 1, 1971, at which time the three most lightly-patronized of the four pairs of trains still making daily stops at the station were discontinued.

Long-distance passenger-train service at Wilkinsburg ended on September 14, 1975 when Amtrak discontinued the stop, citing a total of 128 passengers boarding or alighting in the first six months of 1975, the lowest system-wide, a far cry from the Borough's and railroad's heyday when the borough's status as a dense bedroom community and commercial draw for the eastern suburbs meant that nearly every local train passing through stopped there, apparently second in importance once again to only East Liberty.