Batavia Historical Society Depot Museum

The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was organized in the 1850s to rival the Galena and Chicago Union, whose route had bypassed Batavia and Aurora and stoked fears of economic decline in both towns. Batavia's station was the very first depot the CB&Q constructed, and the company took extra architectural care to make it distinctive: a two-story wood building with red vertical panels, originally 22 by 45 feet, with a gable roof carried on Gothic brackets. A four-room ground-floor extension with a flat roof was added in 1868. The CB&Q eventually abandoned the station, preferring to maintain only its direct route through Aurora. To save the building, it was moved to its present site in 1973, set on a new cinder-block foundation with the Fox River to its east, and renovated to recreate its 1919 appearance, thought to be very close to the original. It joined the National Register of Historic Places on June 6, 1979, listed under the depot's original railroad name, and today operates as the Batavia Historical Society's Depot Museum.