Bushnell Freight House Depot

The community of Bushnell has a long history with railroads. The city was founded in 1854 after Northern Cross Railroad built tracks through the area and named the site after the railroad company’s president, Nehemiah Bushnell.
Today,  freight trains and the Illinois Amtrak line, as they have for over a century and a half, rumble daily through the town and past the historic Bushnell Freight House Depot.

The Bushnell Historical Society has learned through its research that the depot is likely to be the oldest one in Illinois. The exact year of the depot’s construction is undetermined, but it was presumably built in the mid 1800s.

The Bushnell Citizens Coalition has renovated the structure with the goal of  making the Bushnell Freight House Depot available as a venue for receptions, gatherings and reunions.