Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad-Wilton Depot
Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad-Wilton Depot is an historic building located in Wilton, Iowa, United States. The Mississippi and Missouri Railroad built the first rail line in 1855 in what would be called Wilton Junction. The railroad became the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad a few years later. A wooden frame depot and a separate freight facility served the community. The railroad placed their repair and maintenance center in Wilton, and it remained here until 1881 when they started to move operations to Davenport and Muscatine. Rail service continue to increase along the CRI&P, which necessitated a new depot in Wilton. This single-story, brick Romanesque Revival structure was completed in 1898. Six passenger trains stopped in Wilton in 1911, and by 1922 same-day service to and from Chicago began. While the number of freight trains passing through town numbered five or six by 1947, the number of passenger trains declined to one in 1948. The depot received part-time service from 1963 to 1974, when the depot closed.
After the building served as a train station it went into decline until the Wilton Historical Society obtained and restored it. The former depot was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. In 2016 it was included as a contributing property in the Wilton Commercial Historic District.
