Welcome to Curbed's ongoing series titled Hidden History, where Curbed highlights a Bay Area location with a secret past. Maybe it's no longer there, maybe it's been converted into something else, but each spot holds a place in Bay Area history - even if not many people know it. Have a suggestion or know a place with a secret history? The tipline's always open or you can leave a comment after the jump.
Buried beneath Market Street lays one of Muni's biggest secrets. Abandoned in 1972, the Eureka Valley Muni Station still exists - and if you're fast enough, you can catch a glimpse riding between Van Ness and Castro stations.
Located in the eastern end of the Twin Peaks Tunnel, the Eureka Valley Station was constructed in 1918 as a streetcar stop. The station was small and simple - just two underground platforms and two sets of stairs, with entrances topped by a stucco kiosk with a Spanish tile roof.
Early streetcar plans had the Sunset Tunnel joining the Twin Peaks Tunnel before Castro Street, and the Eureka Valley station was to serve as a transfer point between the two tunnels. But when the Sunset Tunnel was built in 1928 it was several blocks north, so the tunnels remained separate.
The station was closed down in 1972 with the construction of the new Muni Market lines because it was determined a new Castro station would be easier and cheaper to build than retrofit the old one. But the Eureka Valley station wasn't demolished. Instead they chose to keep it for use as an emergency exit from the subway.
The platforms are gone, but pieces of the tile walls are still there. The kiosks are also obviously gone, but the emergency exit doors from the remaining stairs are visible at street level at Market Street.
· Muni Metro [Joe Mendoza]
· Eureka Valley Station, Twin Peaks Tunnel [Rescue Muni]
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