ABOUT

The City of Edwardsville, partnering with the Edwardsville Children's Museum and the Edwardsville Community Foundation, has begun the process of moving, restoring, and re-opening the 135 year-old Nickel Plate Railroad Station, located on the N.O. Nelson Campus of Lewis & Clark Community College in the Historic Leclaire neighborhood of Edwardsville, Illinois.

Stories to tell, children to educate, a community to engage - just a few of the responsibilities entrusted to a charming old train station now resting on blocks in the heart of Edwardsville. Its past is our community's story, and its future may well be the same. Restoring the Nickel Plate Station is not just an exercise in preservation, it's an investment in Edwardsville's future. This restoration effort will:

• Provide a second home for the growing Edwardsville Children's Museum, allowing for expanded operations and programming for an older group of children.
• Preserve an attractive, historically-significant, and architecturally interesting old station that has been vital to Edwardsville's past and is one of only a handful of its kind remaining in the country.
• Educate and inspire children through interactive exhibits about transportation, science, math, history, and geography, using the theme of trains and railroading.
• Engage visitors and the community by developing programming and creating a drop-in location along the MCT Trails and in the heart of Edwardsville's "museum district," allowing for the distribution of city materials, bikeway maps, and interpretive brochures.
• Compete with the Wildey for most photographed building in Edwardsville.

To move the station to a permanent home, restore and update its interior and exterior, install the necessary utilities, and develop displays and exhibits, the City of Edwardsville and the Edwardsville Children's Museum are hoping to raise a combined $225,000.