Forest Hill station (Muni Metro)

Forest Hill station is a Muni Metro station near the Forest Hill and Laguna Honda neighborhoods in San Francisco, California. It was originally built in 1916 to 1918 as part of the Twin Peaks Tunnel, and is the oldest subway station west of Philadelphia and east of Istanbul[3] The station was originally named Laguna Honda; lettering with that former name is carved on the station headhouse.

For other places with the same name, see Forest Hill station (disambiguation).
Muni Metro station Forest Hill
Forest Hill station headhouse in 2018
General information
LocationLaguna Honda Boulevard
San Francisco, California
Coordinates37°44′53″N 122°27′33″W
Owned bySan Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency
Line(s)Twin Peaks Tunnel
Platforms2 side platforms
Tracks2
ConnectionsBus transport Muni: 36, 43, 44, 52
Construction
Structure typeUnderground
AccessibleYes
History
OpenedFebruary 3, 1918[1]: 70 
Rebuilt1985
Services
Preceding station Muni Following station
West Portal
towards Balboa Park
 K Ingleside Castro
towards Embarcadero
West Portal
towards SF Zoo
 L Taraval
Suspended
West Portal
towards San Jose and Geneva (Balboa Park)
 M Ocean View
West Portal
Terminus
 S Shuttle
Designated2004[2]
Reference no.231
Location

Scenes from the films Dirty Harry (1971) and Milk (2008) were shot inside of this station.

Station layout and architecture
An inbound M Ocean View train about to depart Forest Hill station in December 2017.

Forest Hill Station was built in a "restrained classical revival"[4] style which has remained largely unaltered to the present. There are also a few decorative features suggestive of an Art Nouveau aesthetic, for example malachite colored accents placed over the elevator doors.

The station consists of two side platforms next to the tracks far below the surface. Forest Hill Station is located deeper underground than any other Muni Metro station; so much so that, unlike other stations, most people use an elevator to reach the platform at Forest Hill. Unlike all other underground Muni Metro stations, which feature an underground concourse mezzanine on the first level down, and the platform on the second level down, Forest Hill's concourse level is in a station building on the surface.

Forest Hill and Eureka Valley stations were originally constructed with low platforms, as streetcars of that era had steps to load passengers from street level. However, the six new Market Street subway stations, as well as West Portal station, were built with high-level platforms for speedier level boarding onto the new Boeing LRVs. With Eureka Valley permanently closed, Forest Hill was left as the only low-platform station on the Muni Metro subway. Muni later modified the station with high-level platforms, elevators for accessibility, and ventilation improvements. The $6 million project, which upgraded Forest Hill to equal the new stations while keeping its historic architecture, was completed in 1985.[5][6]

The station was temporarily closed from June 25 to August 24, 2018, during the Twin Peaks Tunnel shutdown.[7]

It was closed again from March 19 to August 22, 2020, and from August 25, 2020, to May 15, 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic.[8][9][10]

See also

References
  1. Perles, Anthony (1981). The People's Railway: The History of the Municipal Railway of San Francisco. Interurban Press. ISBN 0916374424.
  2. "City of San Francisco Designated Landmarks". City of San Francisco. Archived from the original on March 25, 2014. Retrieved October 21, 2012.
  3. Mendoza, Joe (2010). Muni Metro: San Francisco's light rail lines + streetcar & cable car lines. San Francisco: Metrocitybooks. p. 28. ISBN 978-1-4536-4086-9. OCLC 696641975.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  4. Dinkelspiel Cerny, Susan (2007). An Architectural Guidebook to San Francisco and the Bay Area (1st ed.). Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith. pp. 96–97. ISBN 978-1-58685-432-4. OCLC 85623396.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  5. "Chapter 1". Muni Metro Turnaround Project: Final Environmental Impact Statement. United States Department of Transportation Urban Mass Transportation Administration. August 1989. pp. 1–2 – via Internet Archive.
  6. Brenner, Douglas (January 1987). "In transit" (PDF). Architectural Record. pp. 67–83.
  7. "Twin Peaks Tunnel Improvements". San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. June 25, 2018. Archived from the original on June 26, 2018.
  8. Maguire, Mariana (August 18, 2020). "Major Muni Service Expansion August 22" (Press release). San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency.
  9. Dunn, Bradley (August 25, 2020). "Effective August 25 Buses Serve Muni Metro Routes" (Press release). San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency.
  10. "Welcome Back to the Westside, K Ingleside Trains!" (Press release). San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency. April 16, 2021.

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