EAST LONGMEADOW, Mass. — It was once a train station serving routes across New England more than a century ago and it's now serving ice cream, while also maintaining some of its history.

"So the depot was built in 1876 by the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railway, and it ran from Hartford," said The Depot at The Graham Central Station Owner Steven Graham. "North to Springfield and this was one of the stops."

Graham said East Longmeadow played a vital role for transporting goods by rail throughout the region.

"One of the reasons the train stopped in East Longmeadow is because East Longmeadow used to have 100 or so quarries," he said. "And they mined red stone and sandstone, which was used all over the Northeast."

Decades after the last train passed through here, it was Graham's passion for the railcars which created a new vision for the space.

"I got this idea from a trade show back in 2000 I think it was," he said. "I was in Germany on business at a big trade show and across the booth from me was a guy selling these locomotives, and I said, 'one day I'm gonna buy one and put it in my yard.'"

Graham bought the depot in 2010 and in 2020 was able to purchase the land.

"And this is exactly what it looked like back in 1876 when they built it," he said. "The train ran right by here. This was the boarding platform. It went across the street where they cut the big red stone blocks."

And what about the ice cream? Well the building now holds a shop serving soft as well as 16 flavors of hard ice cream including the signature 'Graham Central station.'

And instead of trains, the business caters to people using what is now a rail trail.

The East Longmeadow resident said keeping the history of transportation and service at the depot was important.

"It was a natural thing to say let's turn this thing into an ice cream shop," he said. "Or a cafe and make this something that the community could enjoy and that's really what we've tried to do."

It’s a ride through history with some ice cream for the trip.