16th Street station (Oakland)

History

Southern Pacific

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. Local horsecar service to the station began in January 1880 when the Fourteenth Street Railroad was extended down 16th Street.

The original depot was replaced by a Beaux-Arts building designed by architect Jarvis Hunt which opened for service on August3, 1912.

For decades the 16th Street station was the main Oakland station for Southern Pacific (SP) through trains, almost entirely replacing the 7th Street station. It was a companion (or "city station") for Oakland Pier, two miles away, where passengers could board ferries to San Francisco. (After 1958, the ferries were replaced by buses from 16th Street station to the SP's Third and Townsend Depot.) The elevated platforms were used for the SP-owned East Bay Electric Lines commuter service (renamed Interurban Electric Railway or IER in 1938).

IER trains from Berkeley no longer stopped at 16th Street when railroad service over the Bay Bridge opened on January 15, 1939, as the junction from those lines to the bridge was north of the station. When the IER folded in July 1941, portions of some lines were sold to the competing Key System for use by their transbay trains; however, the Key System only served the station with a surface streetcar line on 16th Street, and did not use the elevated platforms.

Major long-distance trains from the station included the Oakland Lark (night train to Los Angeles) and the City of San Francisco (to Chicago).

Amtrak and replacement

The station also served as the main rail link for points north and east of the Bay Area. San Francisco-area passengers boarded ferries to Oakland Pier, and after 1958 boarded buses to 16th Street. Amtrak took over intercity passenger rail services in 1971, and decided to consolidate most Bay Area service in Oakland, leaving San Francisco as one of the largest cities without direct intercity rail service.

The station was severely damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, but continued serving trains at an adjacent building. Capitols and San Joaquins trains were shifted to the new Emeryville station on August 13, 1993, but long-distance trains continued to use Oakland Central while track work was completed at Emeryville. The Coast Starlight and California Zephyr began stopping at Emeryville on August 5, 1994; they last stopped at Oakland 16th Street on August 21. This left Emeryville as the only Oakland-area stop for Amtrak until the new Oakland–Jack London Square station opened on May 22, 1995.

Emeryville largely replaced 16th Street station as the connection point for Amtrak Thruway across the bay in San Francisco (for passengers heading northbound towards Seattle or eastbound towards Chicago, or passengers arriving from the north and east), as Emeryville is closer to the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge than Oakland–Jack London Square. However, Jack London Square serves as the San Francisco connection for the Coast Starlight (for southbound passengers from San Francisco and northbound passengers heading to San Francisco).

In the mid-1990s, the adjacent railroad tracks were moved west during the construction of Interstate 880 (to replace the earthquake-destroyed Cypress Street Viaduct), which isolated the station from the tracks. The station buildings are largely intact, including the interlocking tower and ironwork elevated platforms. The station was purchased in 2005 by BUILD, an affiliate of BRIDGE Housing, and is being restored as part of a local redevelopment project. In 2015, the station was used to stage a local opera company's production of Lulu. As of 2021, the station is being used as a rented space for private events.

The station and interlocking tower were added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 21, 2025, under the name Southern Pacific 16th Street Station and 16th Street Tower.

In media

The station was used in films including Chu Chu and the Philly Flash, Funny Lady (as Cleveland station), RENT, and Hemingway & Gellhorn (as a stand-in for the Hotel Florida). Multiple music videos have been filmed at the station, including "Babel" by Mumford & Sons and "Tell Me When to Go" by E-40.

References

References

1. (February 14, 1994). "Amtrak National Timetable Revised Edition: Fall/Winter 1993/1994". Amtrak.
2. (January 7, 1880). "Brevities". Oakland Daily Times.
3. (August 3, 1912). "New Sixteenth-Street Depot Open to the Public This Evening". Oakland Enquirer.
4. Dahlstrom-Eckman, Azul. (April 14, 2022). "How Oakland's 16th Street Train Station Helped Build West Oakland and the Modern Civil Rights Movement". KQED.
5. Jennings, Frederick. (February 1917). "Some California Railroad Stations". The Architect and Engineer of California.
6. [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Southern_Pacific_Railroad_1954_timetable.pdf Southern Pacific timetable 1954], Tables 60, 61, 95, 96
7. {{Sanders-Heartland
8. (August 10, 1993). "Amtrak opens new station in Emeryville". San Francisco Examiner.
9. (October 1994). "Emeryville/16th Street saga finally ends".
10. {{Vurek-Capitol Corridor
11. (October 12, 2020). "Amtrak Coast Starlight Timetable".
12. (October 5, 2020). "Amtrak California Zephyr Timetable".
13. Burt, Cecily. (28 December 2008). "Shuttered but not forgotten: 16th Street depot ready for rebirth". [[MediaNews Group]].
14. "16th Street Station Reuse Planning Process".
15. Geberen, Janos. (April 8, 2015). "Will Lulu Do a Karenina at West Edge Opera?". San Francisco Classical Voice.
16. "Renting the Station".
17. Dahlstrom-Eckman, Azul. (January 31, 2025). "Historic Landmark Status Boosts Push to Restore Iconic West Oakland Train Station". KQED.
18. (January 24, 2025). "Weekly List 2025 01 24". National Park Service.
19. ((Brunzell Historical/Oakland Heritage Alliance)). (April 1, 2024). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Southern Pacific 16th Street Station and 16th Street Tower". National Park Service.
20. Glover, Malcolm. (October 16, 1980). "Ferry commuters set their sights on a motion picture's mirage". San Francisco Examiner.
21. Pollock, Christopher. (2013). "Reel San Francisco Stories: An Annotated Filmography of the Bay Area". Lulu.
22. Paiva, Troy. (2013). "Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration". Chronicle Books.
23. (October 1, 2012). "Oakland's historic 16th Street station celebrates centennial, new role in community". Oakland North.
24. Whitlock, Cathy. (December 31, 2011). "The Sets of Hemingway & Gellhorn". Architectural Digest.
25. (October 7, 2016). "Where should Treasure Island Music Festival 2017 relocate?". San Francisco Chronicle.
26. "Preservation of Oakland’s 16th Street Station Takes Big Step Forward with NPS Historic Register Listing".