The Southern Pacific/Central Pacific Car Paint Shop, later the Southern Pacific Diesel Shop, was the oldest extant industrial railroad building in Oakland and a significant reminder of Oakland’s historic role as the western terminus of the transcontinental railroad. The southeastern half of the building dates to 1874, just five years after the completion of the transcontinental railroad. Up until its destruction by the Union Pacific in September of 2010, it was a rare and valuable example of Oakland’s early industrial and transportation heritage and the only surviving contributing building of the Southern Pacific Railroad West Oakland Shops Historic District, deemed eligible for the National Register of Historic Places by the California SHPO on October 5, 1990.

Photographic evidence indicates that the parallel gable-roofed addition, which doubled the size of the building, was in place by 1902. It had been in continuous railroad use for 128 years.

By the late 1870s, transcontinental passengers and freight began arriving in Oakland. Due to the great need for extensive railroad facilities here at the western end of the transcontinental railroad, the railroad in the 1870s established switching yards, a roundhouse, car repair shops, car building shops, a creosoting plant and shipyards. The Southern Pacific Paint shop, once part of the enormous West Oakland car and repair shops yard, was used to paint and varnish the passenger cars built and maintained by the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads.

The West Oakland car and repair shops created railroad-related jobs, business opportunities, and a building boom in Oakland. In 1876, its local economic importance was observed by the local news: “The Point…is now really the most prosperous part of Oakland…The main cause of prosperity down there is the location of the railroad workshops…” In 1887, the Oakland Daily Evening News reported, “Connected with the yards is a large brick shop, capable of holding ten passenger cars, a part of which is also used as a paint and varnishing shop, where coaches are painted and varnished, and from which eighty or more coaches are turned out each year, painted and varnished and put in first-class order.” The railroad soon swelled Oakland’s population dramatically and by 1880, the population was more than twenty times what it had been two decades before.

In 1942, the Southern Pacific Paint Shop was modified to serve the diesel locomotives of the new “City of San Francisco” streamliner and renamed the Streamliner Shop. The original arched doors were modified at this time to accommodate the newer, larger equipment. The Shop was altered again in 1949 and 1956 and a small compressor house added to the north side of the building in 1958. It continues to be used by the Union Pacific Railroad as an inspection and layover area for diesel locomotives and is equipped with sub-floor inspection pits, elevated service walkways, and a small machine shop.

With its brick pilasters, recessed panels, and segmentally-arched windows, the Southern Pacific Paint Shop was a valuable surviving example of late-19th century industrial design. Easily visible to thousands daily from I-880 and BART, it was a significant reminder of this most important period in Oakland’s history and was successfully nominated in 2001 for designation as an Oakland Landmark.