OAKLAND’S 16TH ST TRAIN STATION HEADS TO NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES

Feleciai Favroth and Naomi Schiff, Oakland Heritage Alliance board members, in front of the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, in Sacramento.

On Thursday, November 7, 2024, Oakland Heritage Alliance representatives took a train to Sacramento for a hearing with the State Historical Resources Commission, which unanimously recommended nomination to the National Register of Historic Places for the 1912 Southern Pacific 16th Street Train Station and its signal tower. The National Park Service reviews nominations, and confers National Register status. Designation is to be made within 60 days. Being on this list will recognize the site’s importance, and make it eligible for federal tax credits with the IRS, providing up to 20% of construction costs in a restoration project. 

Of special note, the Station nomination was one of the first two to be presented as part of a new historic context category, African Americans in California, 1850-1974, Multiple Property Submission, in recognition of its importance in the Great Migration and in the history of labor organizing,with C. L. Dellums and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters playing a key role in the union movement and in the civil rights movement. The station is also noteworthy for its early role in multimodal transportation history, and its Beaux-Arts architecture, by Jarvis Hunt.

Although the station has been a City of Oakland landmark since 1983, two private owners had never submitted it for state and federal status. This year, Oakland Heritage Alliance initiated the federal nomination effort to ensure access to the benefits of designation for the current or a subsequent owner. City Ventures has proposed a housing development on the vacant part of the site, but has provided no plans for the station itself. The Commission received almost 90 letters of support , including from Alameda County Supervisor Carson, Oakland Councilmember Fife, and Oakland Mayor Thao.

For more information: info@oaklandheritage.org, william.burg@parks.ca.gov

Phone: OHA board members: Feleciai Favroth, 510-967-6661 or Naomi Schiff 510-910-3764

Link to recording of meeting: https://cal-span.org/meeting/cshrc_20241107/