The Great Northern Depot in Princeton, Minnesota, United States, is a former passenger and freight depot on the Great Northern Railway. The building is a combination of Queen Anne and Jacobean architectural styles, built of local brick with sandstone trim. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.The Elk River-Milaca LineThe Great Northern Railway originally did not travel through Princeton, it ran from Minneapolis through Elk River and on to St. Cloud. Another line ran from St. Cloud through Milaca to Duluth. Great Northern mogul James J. Hill challenged local business owners to raise $50,000 to route the line through Princeton. The money was raised, and the Elk River-Milaca line was slated to be built.Surveying for the route began in late March 1886, and the track-laying crew started building the new line from Elk River on October 24, 1886. With few obstacles to construction, the line was finished quickly, and rail service began on November 29, 1886. The new Princeton route actually shortened the distance between Minneapolis and Duluth.Initially service was frequent, but in November 1899 the route to Duluth was relocated to a line passing further east, connecting through Coon Rapids, Cambridge and Brook Park (known as the Coon Creek Cutoff or the Bee Line). As a result, service on the Elk River-Milaca line went into a long, drawn-out decline, with luxury passenger cars being replaced with ordinary coaches in 1908, the U.S. Mail route being lost in 1930, and passenger service terminated altogether in 1952. Freight service continued until 1976, at which time the Elk River-Milaca line was abandoned.
