Milan, IL: Rock Island Deopts

(Satellite)

David Sebben posted
I received this photo recently and it says CRI&P depot in Milan, IL.  But the Milan depot doesn't look like this.  Could this one have preceded the existing one?  Photo from 1909.

Thomas Scoville: This is likely an earlier depot. The current Milan depot's architecture matches other Rock Island depots from the 1910-1920 timeframe. The depot in this photo is much older, probably from the mid-1800s.

Miles W. Rich: Additionally, the original Milan Depot was built by the Rock Island & Peoria Rwy, which also owned the Rock Island & Mercer County RR which both used the Milan Depot before the CRI&P acquired both of those roads around 1900. I have a book on the RI&P. I will check the photos.

Retro Quad Cities posted

Everyone thinks that the little depot in Milan is the original one.  Guess again!  Here is the original Milan depot in this 1909 photo.  It served the Rock Island and Mercer County Railroad.

Miles W. Rich: It served the Rock Island & Peoria Railway also, which built it.

The CRI&P purchased the Rock Island & Peoria which ran from Rock Island to Milan thru Coal Valley, Orion, Cambridge, & Toulon to Peoria. Owned by the same interests, the Cable Family and their mining interests, the Rock Island and Mercer County RR was built from the Milan Depot of the RI&P to Sherrard and Cable. The two railroads were merged and sold to the CRI&P in 1903. The CRI&P then granted trackage rights to the RIS to use the former railroads tracks from Southern Junction to Rock Island. In the 1920s, when the coal ran out in the Cable and Sherrard areas, the CRI&P leased the track from Milan through Taylor Ridge to Southern Junction including the branch to Cable and Sherrard to the RIS. In 1952, when the RIS is shut down, the CRI&P formally abandoned the trackage south of Andalusia Road. The CRI&P abandoned the RI&P in stages. The trackage from Milan to Orion in 1940, after obtaining traffic rights from the CB&Q from Colona to Orion. The trackage from Toulon to Peoria in the early 1960s, and the trackage south of Orion with the shutdown in 1980. The portion of the RI&P from Rock Island to Milan, and the trackage of the RI&MC used by the RIS from The Milan depot to the industrial users along Andalusia Road in Milan & Rock Island is still in use by the IAIS.

Google Maps now (2026) labels it as an ice cream & more shop.

Street  View, Aug 2019

I knew the Rock Island was down here by the I&M Canal and Rock River because of the RI bridges over the Rock River and the bridges over the Hennepin Canal. Now I understand that the purpose of those bridges was to connect the mainline on the north side of Rock Island, IL, to the railroads that it bought south of Milan.

1912/12 Milan Quad @ 62,500

I knew the Rock Island followed the Hennepin Canal further east of here. To see how the RI got from the canal up to Silvis and the Mississippi River, I got a bigger picture.

1958/68 Davenport @ 250,000