Auburn, initially named Slaughter, received its first staffed train station in October 1889 on the Puget Sound Shore Railroad, part of the Northern Pacific Railway. A large station was built in 1902, near the intersection of C Street and Main Street to the north of the current Sounder platforms. Auburn served as the Northern Pacific's main junction in the Puget Sound region, with trains diverting to either Seattle or Tacoma from Stampede Pass, and a large railyard was built in 1913 for freight operations south of downtown Auburn. The wooden station was nearly destroyed in 1969 by a fire that was started by a passing train's burning soot, creating a hole in the roof. Passenger service at Auburn station continued under Burlington Northern in 1970 and later Amtrak until May 1978, when the depot was vacated. Despite discussions with local business groups to preserve the building by moving it to another site, Burlington Northern demolished the depot in February 1979. Amtrak also stopped transcontinental trains at a separate East Auburn station until the Empire Builder was rerouted away from Stampede Pass in 1981.