Historic Landmark Status Boosts Push to Restore Iconic West Oakland Train Station

Advocates say West Oakland’s once-bustling, now decrepit Southern Pacific 16th Street Train Station is finally getting the recognition it deserves.

Added to the National Register of Historic Places on Jan. 21, the station is recognized for its role in transportation, architecture and its connection to C.L. Dellums, an influential figure in the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the nation’s first Black union.

Once hailed as the “Grand Central Station of the West,” the station has languished in disrepair since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake forced its closure. Advocates, long seeking funding, hope its new historic designation will spur action before it’s too late.

“ I am ecstatic,” said Feleciai Favroth, treasurer of the Oakland Heritage Alliance, which submitted the station’s nomination.“ This could be the key to make the station a viable rehab project.”

Beyond recognition, the listing makes the station eligible for a 20% federal income tax credit for restoration costs. Similar incentives have helped revive Bay Area landmarks such as Oakland’s Fox Theater and Richmond’s Ford Assembly Plant.

“ The bottom line of the tax credit is it just makes things much more financially feasible and attractive for developers,” said Kara Brunzell, an architectural historian who worked on the nomination for the station.

Although this is a moment to celebrate, Favroth acknowledges the challenge remains: securing funding for the station’s $50 million seismic retrofit and restoration costs.

“ Just because we’re on the registry doesn’t mean the station is saved,” Favroth said.

Despite multiple owners over the decades, none have secured the funds necessary to restore the station. The current owner, City Ventures, has a pending application with the city of Oakland to build a 77-unit townhome-style development, “Signal House,” around the site.

Under review since May 2023, the proposal excludes station rehabilitation. City Ventures has hired OE Consulting firm to explore fundraising for repairs.

In previous interviews, OE Consulting told KQED it was searching for an “anchor funder,” someone to underwrite a starter amount of money to jumpstart the station’s rehabilitation, who would also agree on letting the community decide what the use case for a reimagined 16th Street Station would be.

Favroth said the Oakland Heritage Alliance is now focused on securing funding for a feasibility study on the station’s potential.

“ So you have to do something that’s financially viable because that’s the big thing nowadays with historical preservation. ‘Can the asset financially sustain itself?’” Favroth said.

Proposed ideas include an event venue, offices, a technology hub and a business incubator.

Brunzell said the station is of “the highest level of architectural and historical significance,” adding that it’s rare to have one structure that encompasses so many different kinds of history.

“ It’s akin to Grand Central Station in its grandeur and its solidity,” Brunzell said of the structure, which opened in 1912 and was designed in the Beaux Arts style by renowned architect Jarvis Hunt. “ I don’t think you have to be an architectural historian to just observe the beauty of that building.”

Brunzell noted the station’s significance as a key hub for both local and long-distance trains at a time when rail travel was the primary means of transportation.

“ You could come into the station from distant parts on the Southern Pacific, get off on the ground floor, walk upstairs and get on a local streetcar to take you to your hotel. That was really important and unusual for the time,” Brunzell said.

The station is also one of the first to be designated under a new category that recognizes the history of African Americans in California. Favroth said she was inspired to work on the campaign to save the 16th Street Station because of its importance to her family and the local Black community.

Favroth added like many African Americans, her aunts passed through the station when they migrated to Oakland from Louisiana in the 1940s.

“ I wanted to be able to honor their history and their memory,” Favroth said. “And this station has a strong tie to our history.”