16th Street Station

A monumental Beaux Arts train station on West Oakland's Adeline Street, built in 1912 and abandoned after the 1989 earthquake. The twin-towered facade and the vast waiting hall interior have become one of the most photographed abandoned buildings in the American West — partly for the architecture, partly for the extraordinary layers of graffiti that accumulated over three decades of vacancy.

The building is undergoing restoration and access is restricted, but the exterior alone is worth visiting. The station sits in West Oakland, which itself reflects the city's post-industrial character — warehouses, murals, and long blocks that were once dense with working-class homes before the freeway cut through.

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A story
After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake severely damaged the station, Amtrak and the city abandoned the building. For thirty years it sat vacant and deteriorating — its grand Beaux Arts interior colonised by graffiti artists from around the world, who turned its crumbling walls into one of the most documented street art environments in California. A restoration project began in 2021.