Third and Townsend Depot
{{Short description|Former Southern Pacific terminus, San Francisco}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2025}}
{{use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox station
| name = San Francisco
| style = Southern Pacific Railroad
| symbol_location =
| symbol =
| type =
| image = File:Third and Townsend station, August 1974.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Southern Pacific's Third and Townsend Depot terminal, August 1974
| address = San Francisco, California
| country =
| coordinates =
| owned = Southern Pacific Railroad
| operator =
| manager =
| transit_authority =
| line = Coast Line
| distance =
| platforms =
| tracks =
| train_operators =
| connections =
| structure =
| architectural_style = Mission revival
| opened = August{{nbsp}}17, 1874
| rebuilt = 1889
1915
| closed = 1975
| passengers =
| pass_year =
| pass_rank =
| services = {{adjacent stations
|system1=Southern Pacific Railroad
|line1=Coast Line|right1=23rd Street|note-mid1=via
Bayshore Cutoff
|line2=Coast Daylight|right2=Palo Alto
|line3=Del Monte|right3=23rd Street
|line4=Lark|right4=Burlingame
|line5=Peninsula|right5=23rd Street
|line6=Peninsula|right6=Valencia Street|note-right6=(pre-1907)
|line7=Ocean View|right7=Valencia Street|note-mid7=(pre-1928)
|line8=Suntan Special|right8=Burlingame
}}
}}
The Third and Townsend Depot was the main train station in the city of San Francisco for much of the first three quarters of the 20th century. The station at Third Street and Townsend Street served as the northern terminus for Southern Pacific's Peninsula Commute line between San Francisco and San Jose (forerunner of Caltrain) and long-distance trains between San Francisco and Los Angeles via the Southern Pacific's Coast Line. For service for destinations to the north, such as Seattle, and destinations to the east, such as Chicago, passengers generally needed to travel to Oakland, initially on ferries to Oakland Long Wharf, and later on buses to 16th Street Station. It was demolished in the 1970s and replaced by the Caltrain commuter station a block away at Fourth and King Streets.
History
Southern Pacific moved the northern terminal of their Peninsula route to the Mission Bay in response to the Tidelands Bill of 1868, which granted the Central Pacific, Southern Pacific, and Western Pacific railroads {{convert|150|acre}} of land in the area on condition they provide a terminal station.{{cite web |first=Chris |last=Carlsson |url=http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=THE_RAILROAD_COMES_TO_SF%3F |title=The Railroad Comes to SF? |website=Found SF |accessdate=May 1, 2019 }} The initial terminal at the site was on Townsend between Third and Fourth,{{cite news |title=Local Brevities |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-examiner-local-breviti/159332019/ |access-date=19 November 2024 |newspaper=The San Francisco Examiner |via=Newspapers.com |date=August 1, 1874 |location=San Francisco, California |page=3}} {{free access}} opening on August{{nbsp}}17, 1874.{{cite news |title=Jottings about town |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/san-francisco-chronicle-jottings-about-t/159332152/ |access-date=19 November 2024 |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |via=Newspapers.com |date=August 18, 1874 |location=San Francisco, California |page=3}} {{free access}} The depot also featured Southern Pacific's freight sheds. The company's corporate offices were additionally on site, and were destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.{{sfn|McGovern|2012|p=17}} A new station building was constructed in 1889. The San Francisco depot was the designated zero mile of the entire SP system.
The Third and Townsend Depot was built in 1914–15 on the occasion of the Panama–Pacific International Exposition to be held in 1915.{{cite web|url=http://www.snowcrest.net/photobob/3rdst1.html |title=Third & Townsend Depot |publisher=Snowcrest.net |date= |accessdate=2015-06-13}}{{cite web|url=http://wx4.org/to/foam/sp/san_fran/3rd/townsend.html |title=Third & Townsend, Part 1 |publisher=Wx4.org |date= |accessdate=2015-06-13}}{{cite web|last=Atkins |first=Martin |url=http://urbanscars.com/san-francisco-southern-pacific-depot/ |title=The Southern Pacific Railroad Depot in San Francisco |publisher=Urbanscars.com |date=2012-09-07 |accessdate=2015-06-13}} The 1889-built station, then becoming known as "The Old Depot", was moved to make way for the new building.{{harvnb|McGovern|2012|p=16}} Originally the 1914 station was supposed to be temporary, with a main station to be built further downtown; the Southern Pacific had assembled some of the land they would need to extend the line to a terminal at Market Street and Embarcadero, facing the Ferry Building.{{cite web |url=http://www.sfmuseum.net/hist7/spdepot.html |title=Southern Pacific Announces Plans for Depot |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |date=November 25, 1912 |via=Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco |accessdate=May 1, 2019 }} However, this plan was never carried out, and Third and Townsend served as San Francisco's train station for 62 years.
The depot was the terminus of Southern Pacific's Sunset Limited, running to New Orleans via Los Angeles.{{cite web |url=http://wx4.org/to/foam/sp/maps/and_timetables/1921-01SP_systemPTT.pdf |title=Local and Through Passenger Time Tables|publisher=Southern Pacific |via=wx4's Dome of Foam |access-date=17 April 2021 |page=10}} The service was cut back to Los Angeles in 1930, reinstated to San Francisco again in 1935, then cut back permanently in 1942.
The station had its last long distance train on April{{nbsp}}30, 1971, when the Southern Pacific yielded operation of the Coast Daylight to Amtrak and the Del Monte was discontinued. Amtrak opted to consolidate most of its Bay Area service in Oakland. However, the bus connections between San Francisco and Oakland (and later Emeryville) continued, and are still operated as part of the Amtrak Thruway banner. Peninsula Commute service also continued.
With the rise of freeways and the loss of long-distance passenger rail service, Southern Pacific built the much smaller Fourth and King Street Station to serve the Peninsula Commute in 1975. Third and Townsend was demolished in 1975–76.
Description
File:Southern Pacific Terminus, 3rd and Townsend, San Francisco.jpg ]]
Designed by the Southern Pacific Architectural Bureau, the station was two stories, built of reinforced concrete in the characteristic Mission Revival architecture style,{{cite journal |first=Frederick |last=Jennings |title=Some California Railroad Stations |journal=The Architect and Engineer of California |volume=48 |issue=2 |date=February 1917 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p7saAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA31 |pages=43–47 }} and was one of the best examples of the style in San Francisco.{{sfn|Olmsted|Watkins|1968|p=[https://archive.org/details/heretodaysanfran00olms/page/298 298] }} The railroad intended the style to "link San Francisco more closely with the romance and sentiment of the settlement of California", and planned to include interior murals on that theme. The initial announcement of the design included giving customers a choice of free and paying bathrooms, for the first time in a Western train station. There was a baggage building, a commissary, and a Pullman storeroom.{{sfn|McGovern|2012|p=22}} The roofs were tiled and arcades and door canopies sheltered passengers from the weather on two sides. The interiors were finished in oak. The waiting room had a marble floor, measured {{convert|64|by|110|ft}}, with a {{convert|45|ft|adj=mid}} ceiling, and was lit on three sides by amber-glassed windows.
Local bus and streetcar services were provided by the Market Street Railway and later the San Francisco Municipal Railway.{{cite map |title=Indexed Reference Map of San Francisco |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:San_Francisco_City_Map_-_DPLA_-_f4f477c878a1bc5183a2e48e592b3a73.jpg |access-date=22 January 2022 |publisher=Rand McNally |date=1948}}
References
{{Reflist}}
=Bibliography=
- {{cite book |first=Janet |last=McGovern |title=Caltrain and the Peninsula Commute Service |series=Images of Rail |location=Charleston, South Carolina |year=2012 |publisher=Arcadia |isbn=9780738576220 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RjorOsVgXlcC&q=1889 }}
- {{cite book |first1=Roger |last1=Olmsted |first2=T. H. |last2=Watkins |title=Here Today: San Francisco's Architectural Heritage |url=https://archive.org/details/heretodaysanfran00olms |url-access=registration |location=San Francisco |publisher=Chronicle Books |year=1968 |oclc=473730380 }}
External links
{{Portal|San Francisco Bay Area}}
- {{Commons category-inline|San Francisco 3rd and Townsend Street station|Third and Townsend Depot}}
Category:Passenger rail transportation in California
Category:Transportation in the San Francisco Bay Area
Category:History of San Francisco
Category:Railway stations in the United States opened in 1914
Category:Demolished railway stations in the United States
Category:1914 establishments in California
Category:Railway stations in the United States closed in 1975