Berkeley Station

Berkeley Station was the name of the principal railroad station in Berkeley, California from 1878 to 1911. It was located in what is now downtown Berkeley, on Shattuck Avenue between University Avenue and Center Street. The tract is today occupied by Shattuck Square and Berkeley Square. The name continued in use after 1911 although the station was no longer the main rail depot for Berkeley.

Berkeley Station began as the "Berkeley Terminus" of the Central Pacific Railroad's Berkeley Branch Railroad, established in 1876, two years before Berkeley was incorporated. In 1878, the railroad was extended northward several blocks, so the "terminus" was re-named Berkeley Station.

From 1876 to about 1892, Berkeley Station included a small wooden depot located close to Center and Shattuck. During this period, the Berkeley Branch was leased to the Southern Pacific Railroad, a close affiliate of the Central Pacific. About 1892, the first depot was replaced by a slightly larger wood depot. In 1906, construction began on a much larger brick and stone depot, which opened in 1908. This new depot consisted of two main buildings linked by a small enclosed courtyard. The north building was used as a baggage facility while the south building included the ticket office and waiting room.

In 1911, at the urging of the community backed up by a ruling by the California State Railroad Commission, the Southern Pacific constructed another depot in West Berkeley, a largely industrial district along the mainline of the Southern Pacific. This depot, named the West Berkeley Station, allowed passengers to directly board mainline trains without having to transfer from the Berkeley Branch line at the 16th Street Station in Oakland. Berkeley Station thus lost its primacy, but it continued as a regular railroad depot while mainly serving as the principal commuter depot for passengers heading to San Francisco by way of the ferries. With the opening of the rail line on the new San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge imminent, the Southern Pacific successfully petitioned the Railroad Commission to close and demolish the depot at Berkeley Station, arguing that since the downtown trains would no longer connect with the mainline at the 16th Street Station (the bridge line bypassed it), such a large station was unnecessary. The depot was demolished in August 1938, its function replaced by a small ticket office in a commercial building which rose in its place.

In 1972, the name "Berkeley Station" was revived as the name of the BART stop in downtown Berkeley, but was changed to "Downtown Berkeley" in the 1990s. The Amtrak stop adjacent to the old West Berkeley depot at Third and University is currently called "Berkeley Station".

References

* Newsletter of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA), Summer 2004