E-40 in the abandoned 16th Street Train Station
Sean found this E-40 video, which is partly filmed in the old 16th Street train station in West Oakland:
Sean went on a scouting mission to the 16th Street station when we were living in West Oakland in 2001 and took a bunch of pictures:
Built in 1912 and located at Wood street in West Oakland, the 16th Street Train Station is a beautiful old Beaux Arts building, now covered in graffiti, just sitting there with all of its memories locked up inside. The 16th Street Station was designed by Jarvis Hunt of Chicago, his plans were also used for a twin station in Kansas City. Back in the old days the bay waters would come right up to the tracks there at 16th street, and a ball park was located directly across from the station's main entrance. West Oakland was jumping in the teens, when the area was populated mostly by Portugese, Irish, Italian and African American immigrants. You could see the Oakland hills without any of the houses on them from the arrival platform, when Grizzly bears still lumbered on Skyline and fish were splashing around in the creeks. The 16th Street Train Station was built to connect to Berkeley's "Big Red" electric trains on the West's first elevated railway, while serving Southern Pacific's main line on the ground level. The elevated railway ran from 9th to 20th streets. The 7th Street Line used the elevated tracks last before they were torn down to make way for the Cypress Freeway in 1957. From 1971 until the station was structurally damaged by the 1989 earthquake, Amtrak rented the station from Southern Pacific. The site was declared a historic landmark in 1983. Today, the old turn-around is a big, dirt parking lot used by the Oakland Housing Authority to store their various cars. The old kitchen area to the right of the main entrance is being used as storage for a variety of mysterious things. Word on the street is that the whole lot has been purchased by a developer for 8 million dollars and is awaiting the usual boring mixed use makeover. This old train station makes me particularly sad because it is a really amazing set of buildings, the stonework is something you never see anymore, the high romance of the train resonates the hopes of a young Oakland, before the city was converted into a wartime factory, cut apart by freeways, and left to rot.
Sean went on a scouting mission to the 16th Street station when we were living in West Oakland in 2001 and took a bunch of pictures:
Built in 1912 and located at Wood street in West Oakland, the 16th Street Train Station is a beautiful old Beaux Arts building, now covered in graffiti, just sitting there with all of its memories locked up inside. The 16th Street Station was designed by Jarvis Hunt of Chicago, his plans were also used for a twin station in Kansas City. Back in the old days the bay waters would come right up to the tracks there at 16th street, and a ball park was located directly across from the station's main entrance. West Oakland was jumping in the teens, when the area was populated mostly by Portugese, Irish, Italian and African American immigrants. You could see the Oakland hills without any of the houses on them from the arrival platform, when Grizzly bears still lumbered on Skyline and fish were splashing around in the creeks. The 16th Street Train Station was built to connect to Berkeley's "Big Red" electric trains on the West's first elevated railway, while serving Southern Pacific's main line on the ground level. The elevated railway ran from 9th to 20th streets. The 7th Street Line used the elevated tracks last before they were torn down to make way for the Cypress Freeway in 1957. From 1971 until the station was structurally damaged by the 1989 earthquake, Amtrak rented the station from Southern Pacific. The site was declared a historic landmark in 1983. Today, the old turn-around is a big, dirt parking lot used by the Oakland Housing Authority to store their various cars. The old kitchen area to the right of the main entrance is being used as storage for a variety of mysterious things. Word on the street is that the whole lot has been purchased by a developer for 8 million dollars and is awaiting the usual boring mixed use makeover. This old train station makes me particularly sad because it is a really amazing set of buildings, the stonework is something you never see anymore, the high romance of the train resonates the hopes of a young Oakland, before the city was converted into a wartime factory, cut apart by freeways, and left to rot.