Northwest Illinois Directory
History & Heritage in Amboy
Every supper club, trailhead, main-street shop, and stay across all four counties: searchable in one place.
Amboy Depot MuseumThe Amboy Depot Museum is located in a former depot and division headquarters of the Illinois Central Railroad located in Amboy, Illinois. The building is an architecturally unique two-story building built of brick and cut Joliet limestone and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It has been completely restored both inside and out, and includes the original brick tarmac surrounding the depot and the grounds of the former rail-yard, now preserved as a city park. Also reconstructed were the distinctive chimney caps on the building's eight chimneys, fully restoring the building to its original exterior configuration. Within the museum are artifacts of both the history of Amboy and the Illinois Central Railroad.
The museum complex also contains a freight house with additional artifacts, a fully restored one-room country schoolhouse, a retired steam engine and a caboose. So, come in to see what's to be seen at one of the best small-town depot museums to be found anywhere!
First Carson Pirie Scott Store PlaqueThis historic plaque marks the Amboy storefront where Samuel Carson and John T. Pirie established the dry-goods business in 1854 that became Carson Pirie Scott & Co. The marker is mounted at the original brick building, now home to the Long Branch Saloon.
Mormons in Amboy Historical MarkerThis downtown Amboy historical marker identifies the site of Goldman’s Hall, where Joseph Smith III was ordained president-prophet of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on April 6, 1860. The event formalized the church’s reorganization, now known as Community of Christ. The marker also recalls Amboy’s early Mormon congregation and was erected in 1974 by the Lee County and Illinois State Historical Societies.
