Oakland's 16th Street Station

Deep in the heart of diesely West Oakland sits a stately former train depot known as The 16th St. Station.  Ever since Loma Prieta closed its doors permanently in 1989, it has seen developers and residents argue for years about whether or not its century of service merited its salvation.   Now, the decisions have been made, the water is still, and all action is stalled under a mandatory cease fire imposed by this Great Recession.

The 16th St. Station was a work horse.  As the terminus of the Transcontinental Railway, it was the biggest freight hub on the west coast.  All this traffic was supported by one of the biggest rail yards Central (now Southern) Pacific had ever built.  While shipping mass national freight it also served the region’s public transit needs in the form of East Bay Electric (The Key System’s primary competitor).  The huge growth of the black population in the 20’s and 30’s was fueled largely in part by the booming railroad industry and cheap land in Oakland.

Back then, this station probably served as the center of town, the primary focal point from which all activity radiated.  Flickr user KatiePipu has some more period photos.  Unfortunately, just like all booms, this one slowly fizzled as truck shipping and the private automobile grew in popularity.  The last hurrah for 16th Street station was when Amtrak rented it from Southern (now Union) Pacific for use as a passenger station. It served in this capacity until is sustained massive damage during the Loma Preita earthquake of ‘89.

From what I can make out of the heap of .pdfs this thing produced, is that they did finally agree to develop the site with anthill condos while preserving the station proper as some sort of community center.  However, everything pretty much stalled around 2006 and they haven’t done much else except install a burglar alarm.  You are welcome to try to make sense of these PDFs yourself.  Don’t worry, that link just goes to a normal web page where you can access the hell documents individually.  The 16th & Wood Train Station Coalition (more .pdfs) is a local group looking out for the place and making sure the developers stick to the plan.

Unfortunately, that burglar alarm means that I only have exterior shots to share.  Motion sensors are annoying effective.  It has been open in the past, but it is throughout locked down now.  Itsy Bitsy was able to fit her camera through the front doors and get the shot above.  I plan on speaking to the owner to try to obtain some legit access.

If you would like to see more interior footage, I would suggest watching E- 40’s “Tell Me When To Go” video which was filmed here:

Coordinates:

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Keep in mind the interior is guarded by motion sensors, but I am posting coordinates if you would like have a look around outside. It really is quite a beautiful building.