Museum Interior

The interior of the Amboy Depot Museum is a largely unchanged Victorian Division Headquarters of 1876. Visitors walk beneath the 11-foot ceilings through the 8-foot high elaborately framed doors as they access the nineteen rooms of the museum. Herein is contained some of the rarest artifacts of the Illinois Central Railroad, including original publications from the 1850's, the decade of the railroad's incorporation. Additionally, other rooms contain artifacts and remembrances of Amboy's history, from its 1854 incorporation as a City to the 21st century. The museum has undergone an extensive restoration on the interior, with all rooms replastered, staircase restored and all original woodwork repainted. Two original walk-in safes are also open for inspection. This combined effect allows the visitor to literally walk through the operational heart of over two hundred miles of the railroad, all preserved as it was built over a century and a quarter past.