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. of the station building before 1917. 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==