Muni Back to the Future
Photo of Forest Hill Station in 1955 via SFMTA archive photos
Underground Muni stations have personality. I like to imagine what each station was like when it opened when I roll through Forest Hill, Castro, Church, and the others.
Over at Muniverse, Jamison posts photos of Forest Hill Station, then, then, and now. Neato.
Check out the entire post over at Muniverse. And buy the nifty Muni app of the same name while you’re there!
I found a SF Progress article from 1977 that says Forest Hill station has a vault beneath it that held microfilm property records for SF and LA as precaution against another big earthquake. I have yet to find someone who can verify or give more info!
I wonder if there are any pics of Eureka Valley Station. You can still see the remnants of it as you’re passing through the tunnel a little west of Castro Station.
They removed the eastern exits when the new streetcar ramps were installed during the 70s, but the western exits still exist as emergency exits(however the shelters that covered the stairways were there were replaced by flat metal doors).
It just so happens Clay,
I was trying to find photos of Eureka Valley Station as well and the only two I could find are in Eric Fischer’s historic photo treasure trove on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkingsf/6506706349/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkingsf/6506705941/in/photostream/
Its still a rough draft, but I’m writing a follow up on our only Muni ghost station. The design was utilitarian in the extreme, with support beams running right through the platform. It was always intended the subway could continue down Market Street and the station was partially demolished in the 1970s to make way for Castro Station.
What I remember of the Eureka Valley Station was that there were plain side platforms on either side that had stairs leading up to exits on either end (Diamond St. or Eureka St.) of the station. There were support columns between the tracks but none on the platforms.
I remember that Forest Hill station once had three elevators. The newest one was automatic (left), the middle one was manual with manual doors, the right one was manual with automatic doors. To go downtown, in those days, you took the elevator to the mezzanine, walked on a bridge above the tracks then followed the stairs to the platform. When they were building the new elevators that went straight to the downtown platforms, they cut off the end of the bridge and made a temporary staircase down to the platform. (This was removed when the elevators were opened.) This bridge stub still exists as a storage alcove but goes nowhere.