The first station building was built at the beginning of the 1880s and it started to be used for that purpose in 1882 when trains started running between Tampere and Vaasa. The building was located on the west end of the railway yard. When Haapamäki became a junction station after the christening of the line to Jyväskylä, a new station building was built on the east end of the yard. The old station was turned into a house for the stationmaster. An expansive park was next to it; this park was called Gröndahl's Park after the stationmaster at the time. When the railway yard was expanded to accommodate the line to Pori in 1937, the park was razed and the old station building dismantled. It is said that Gröndahl sent 2,000 plant species and varieties to the Botanic Garden of the University of Helsinki.