When Champaign-Urbana’s electricity magnate William B. McKinley had the idea in the late 1890s to connect some of the larger cities in Central and Southern Illinois together by rail, he ran into some opposition both locally and from surrounding…

In 1866 the Danville, Urbana, Bloomington and Pekin Railroad Company (DUBP) was incorporated and plans quickly surfaced to build a railroad from Danville to Pekin, running through Urbana. Clark R. Griggs, president of DUBP, along with W.C. Barrett,…

Built in 1856, this simple structure was built by J. Campbell, who erected many other buildings in the mid 1850s, and purchased by the Illinois Central Railroad Company that same year. The Doane House was one of the longest standing buildings in the…