The Centerville Depot

Centerville's first station opened in February 1882 as the end of a South Pacific Coast Railroad branch from Newark, worked by a mixed horsecar shuttle handling freight and passengers alike. After Southern Pacific converted the line to standard gauge and pushed steam service through toward Niles in 1909, the present wooden depot opened in September 1910 — one of sixty of SP's standardized Type 23 stations, built for under $5,000. The station was busy in its early decades, even hosting daily milk trains, but passenger service ended on March 29, 1940; Railway Express Agency shipping lasted until 1958 and the building closed completely in 1961. It then cycled through lives as a furniture, spice, toy, and electronics store before standing abandoned in 1991. Amtrak returned on June 4, 1993, the City of Fremont acquired the depot that December, and on March 15, 1995, the building was moved to the opposite side of the tracks and rotated 180 degrees. A restoration finished in June 1999 — the projects together cost over $900,000 — returned the depot to its 1910 appearance, and today it serves Amtrak Capitol Corridor and Altamont Corridor Express riders.