The first station was built in 1856 by the Ontario Simcoe and Huron Union Railroad Company, which later became the Northern Railway of Canada in 1858. It was a small wooden building situated to the east of the lines, south of Gladstone Avenue and the Gladstone Hotel at Queen Street. In 1885, it was expanded and re-oriented to face the rail lines. The track traversed Dufferin and Queen Streets at an angle, just east of the intersection, at a level crossing from the north-west to the south-east.
