Shuttered since last year, the abandoned building has recently become a canvass for graffiti, stripped of its elements, broken into and vandalized, host for the occasional underground dance party, or used by homeless people as shelter to escape the rain. Greyhound pulled its buses from the San Pablo depot in 2021.

When it first opened in 1926, the station’s Beaux-Arts design and octagonal ceiling were praised as wonderous additions to Oakland’s increasingly ornate cityscape.īut now, the station’s existence is threatened.

Its architecture reflects grand ambitions. For many, the Greyhound station connected the community and provided a sense of safety in public space that is often missing today. Tucked next to Highway 24 on San Pablo Avenue, where downtown and West Oakland meet, the old Greyhound Bus Station is a place where countless Oaklanders started out on a trip beyond the city for the first time, where thousands of soldiers went to fight in more than five wars, from Germany to Afghanistan, and where people from all walks of life crossed paths and fell in love.

Oakland’s Greyhound station today (photo by Amir Aziz) and in 2016 (photo by Hilda Chen).

Grey hound bus