A Fallen Gem: Oakland’s 16th Street Train Station

Bay Curious

KQED

History, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.9 • 999 Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Listener Tadd Williams often sees the 16th Street Station from I-880. It's a huge, stately building in the Beaux-Arts style. It's looking a little rundown now, but it was clearly once dazzling. In today's episode, we explore how this spot was important to West Oakland's Black community and the Civil Rights Movement. And we get a promising update on it's future. Additional Reading How Oakland's 16th Street Station Helped Build West Oakland and the Modern Civil Rights Movement Transcript of this episode Legacy of the Pullman Car Porters Sign up for our newsletter Enter our Sierra Nevada Brewing Company monthly trivia contest Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your love by going to https://kqed.org/donate/podcasts This story was reported by Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz and Christopher Beale. Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Alana Walker, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED family.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	In Los Angeles, survivors of last month's wildfires are beginning to rebuild.
0:06.2	There's so much love coming to the surface.
0:09.1	Across California, those who have been there before offer insights on how.
0:14.0	And whatever we've learned, we have to pass on to the next group.
0:17.7	I'm Aaron Baldessari, host of KQED's podcast, Sold Out, Rethinking Housing in America.
0:23.9	Find our special series about how to chart a more resilient path wherever you get your podcasts.
0:31.6	From KQED. Bay Curious listener Tad Williams often finds himself driving on the 880 freeway in West Oakland.
0:40.4	There's this one building that's visible from the road that he's always wondered about.
0:45.3	It seemed like such a beautiful structure. I guess that was the first thing that kind of caught my eye.
0:50.2	It's an impressive building in the Bose Arts style that looks stately and European.
0:56.9	The front is dominated by three grand arched windows positioned over the entrance.
1:02.6	Everything is very symmetrical.
1:05.8	But the outside is routinely covered with graffiti, and this place is surrounded by a perimeter
1:11.8	of chain link fencing because it's been abandoned for more than three decades.
1:17.6	It's something I've always seen from the freeway and I just wanted to understand more about
1:23.4	its background, its history, its purpose.
1:26.4	Turns out the building Tad has been eyeing is the 16th Street train station in West Oakland.
1:31.7	It's got a storied legacy that can hardly be overstated.
1:35.8	It helped give rise to West Oakland's black community and laid a foundation for activism in the town.
1:41.7	But with all these accolades, why does it sit empty today?
1:48.1	On today's show, we go inside the once grand, now derelict 16th Street Station.
1:54.9	This episode first ran on Bay Curia's in 2022, but there's been an exciting update.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 0 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KQED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KQED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.