16th Street Station

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Not to be confused with 16th Street Mission.

Coordinates: 37°48′56″N 122°17′48″W / 37.81558°N 122.29676°W / 37.81558; -122.29676

Old Oakland SP depot seen from I-880. SP suburban trains platforms in front; 16th St. tower visible at left.
Oakland 16th Street Station, main entrance, December 2007

The 16th Street Station was one of three train stations in Oakland, California at the start of the 20th century. The building was designed by architect Jarvis Hunt, a preeminent train station architect, and opened in 1912. For decades the 16th Street Station was the main Oakland station for Southern Pacific through trains, with East Bay Electric Lines on the elevated platforms. It was a companion (or "city station") for Oakland Pier, two miles away, which was demolished in 1960. It was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and was later closed and replaced by the Amtrak station in nearby Emeryville. Amtrak service ended on August 5, 1994.[1]

The station is in West Oakland at 16th and Wood Streets, next to and visible from the Interstate 880 connector ramps of the MacArthur Maze. The station buildings are largely intact, including the interlocking tower and ironwork elevated platforms that carried commuter trains of SP's East Bay Electric Lines until 1941.

The station was purchased in 2005 by BUILD, an affiliate of BRIDGE Housing, and is being restored as part of a local redevelopment project[2][3] and will not be used as a railroad station again. The tracks of the Southern Pacific (now Union Pacific) main line moved westward in the 1990s and now run on the other side of I-880, leaving the station isolated.

The station was used in films such as Funny Lady, RENT and Hemingway & Gellhorn. Mumford & Sons also filmed their music video for "Babel" here.

The original 16th Street depot was a smaller wood structure, built when the tracks were on the shoreline of San Francisco Bay. Later the shoreline was filled and now lies nearly a mile west.

Passenger trains now reach Oakland via the Jack London Square station, the Coliseum station, and the nearby Emeryville station.

References

  1. ↑ National Association of Railroad Passengers (August 19, 1994). "Hotline #839". Retrieved 2012-07-31. 
  2. ↑ Shuttered but not forgotten: 16th Street depot ready for rebirth, by Cecily Burt (Oakland Tribune; December 28, 2008; originally published at http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/ci_11326325)
  3. ↑ 16th Street Station Reuse Planning Process

External links

Media related to 16th Street Station, Oakland, California at Wikimedia Commons

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