In 1851, the
Illinois Central Railroad began construction of their new rail line which branched south of Chicago to what is now the Village of Homewood. The first passenger train to run on this line ran from Chicago to Kankakee, IL on August 5, 1853, and stopped in present day Homewood. Also in 1853, the Illinois Central built a one-and-a-half story depot to serve to area. When the depot was built, the nearest town to the new depot was the large village of Thornton, IL, about three miles to the east of the depot, and the depot was named the "Illinois Central Thornton Depot" for sixteen years. In 1869, the depot was officially renamed to the Homewood Station. The Illinois Central Railroad built the current Homewood Depot in 1923 to serve the
Panama Limited and
Seminole Limited. The station house, now used by Amtrak, was built in a
mission revival style in order to complement the architecture of the clubhouse of the nearby
Ravisloe Country Club. After Amtrak completed its renovation of its facilities, Metra separately began a $14 million renovation of their facilities at the station. Metra replaced their station structure at Harwood Avenue and Ridge Road with a new structure, and renovated the track-access tunnel. It was funded through a combined $9 million funds from the
Federal Transit Administration and
Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, with a further $4 million coming from Metra, $585,000 coming from Homewood, and $300,000 coming from
Cook County. Metra's renovation of their facilities at the Homewood station was announced in 2020, and was part of a five-year capital investment plan involving the renovation of nine stations (including Homewood) on the Metra Electric District. == Bus connections ==