Butler Road station

{{Short description|Former train station in South San Francisco, California}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}} {{Use American English|date=February 2025}} {{Infobox station | name = Butler Road | style = Southern Pacific Railroad | image = Northbound train passing Butler Road station site, July 2018.JPG | image_caption = A train passing the former station site in 2018 | address = Oyster Point Boulevard (Butler Road)<br />South San Francisco, California | coordinates = {{coord|37|39|46|N|122|23|54|W|type:railwaystation_region:US-CA|display=inline,title|name=Butler Road (Peninsula Commute station)}} | mapframe = yes | owned =  | line = PCJPB Peninsula Subdivision<ref name=schematics>{{CA rail schematics|page=13}}</ref> | other = | platform = | parking = | bicycle = | passengers = | pass_year = | opened = | closed = {{End date|1983|7}}<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Caltrans |magazine=National Railway Bulletin |volume=53–54|date=1988|page=38|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1PRVAAAAMAAJ&q=%22butler+road%22+1983|access-date=2013-04-04}}</ref> | rebuilt = | accessible =  | other_services_header = Former services | other_services = {{Adjacent stations|system=Southern Pacific Railroad|line1=Peninsula|left=Bayshore|right=South San Francisco}} }}

'''Butler Road''' station was a train station in South San Francisco, California, in operation until July 1983 on the Peninsula Commute, a commuter rail service run by Southern Pacific between San Francisco and communities on the San Francisco Peninsula. The Butler Road train shelter was built in 1926.<ref>{{cite book |title=Caltrain and the Peninsula Commute Service|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RjorOsVgXlcC&pg=PA49 |first=Janet|last=McGovern|date=2012|publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-0-7385-7622-0 |page=49|access-date=2013-04-04}}</ref>

==History== The stop was next to the Shaw-Batcher steel mill, which opened in 1913; the mill was purchased by the Western Pipe and Steel Company in 1917.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/ssfpubliclibrary/8950725094 |title=Industry: Shaw Batcher Company, shipyards during World War I. |date=1918 |website=flickr |publisher=South San Francisco Public Library |access-date=23 May 2018}}</ref> {{convert|200|acre}} of land were acquired for a shipyard in August 1917,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SN19170901.2.18 |title=Big Ship Yard Soon for San Francisco |date=1 September 1917 |newspaper=Sausalito News |volume=33 |number=35 |access-date=24 May 2018}}</ref> and Shaw-Batcher was awarded a $30 million contract to build 18 merchant ships during World War I. The worksite population grew from 200 in early 1917 to 4,447 by July 1918, a month after the company's first ship was launched.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.mercurynews.com/2009/04/10/for-peninsulans-world-war-i-was-close-to-home-struggle/ |title=For Peninsulans World War I was close to home struggle |date=10 April 2009 |newspaper=San Jose Mercury News |access-date=23 May 2018}}</ref> After the war, Western Pipe moved shipbuilding operations to San Pedro<ref>{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SPDN19200612.2.45 |title=S.F. Shipyards of Shaw-Batcher Co. May Close Down |date=12 June 1920 |newspaper=San Pedro Daily News |volume=XIX |number=135 |access-date=24 May 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SPDN19210324.2.14 |title=Schwab Enters Shipbuilding Field Here |date=24 March 1921 |newspaper=San Pedro Daily News |volume=XIX |number=49 |access-date=24 May 2018}}</ref> and continued to produce pipe in South San Francisco, which was used in notable dam projects such as Hetch Hetchy, Grand Coulee, Shasta, and Folsom.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d6kwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA36 |title=San Francisco Bay Shoreline Guide |editor=Gustaitis, Rasa |date=2012 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley, California |isbn=978-0-520-27436-5 |page=36 |access-date=23 May 2018}}</ref> The shipyard was reactivated in 1939 for World War II,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://shipbuildinghistory.com/shipyards/large/westernpipe.htm |title=Western Pipe & Steel Co., South San Francisco CA and San Pedro CA |date=20 January 2014 |publisher=Shipbuilding History |access-date=23 May 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/38662173/ |title=S.S.F. Gets $10,000,000 Ship Job |date=15 September 1939 |newspaper=The Times |location=San Mateo, California |access-date=23 May 2018}}{{subscription required}}</ref> and after the war ended, the site was sold in 1948 to Consolidated Steel (later United States Steel and its divisions),<ref name=USSteel>{{cite web|title=Bits of History: Exploring San Mateo County Historical Photographs|url=http://bitsofhistory.plsinfo.org/thumbnailtext.asp?offset=360&id=475|access-date=2013-04-04}}</ref> which closed the mill in 1983.<ref name=USSteel /> Service to the Butler Road stop was also discontinued that year.<ref>{{cite report |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ucw6AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA88 |title=Rail Passenger Development Plan, 1988-93 Fiscal Years |pages=88;122 |date=March 1988 |publisher=Department of Transportation, State of California |access-date=24 May 2018}}</ref>

The Butler Road stop was relatively little-used for much of its existence. In 1958, for example, only four of the 27 total northbound weekday commuter trains stopped at the station.<ref>{{cite web|title=1958 San Francisco - San Jose Southern Pacific Passenger Time Tables Back|author=Jafafa Hots (Flickr member)|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/jafafahots/8414555281/sizes/l/in/photostream/|access-date=2013-04-04}}</ref> In 1978, only three of the 22 total northbound weekday trains stopped there.<ref>{{cite web|title=1978 Southern Pacific Timetable photo |author=Railsaroundthebay.net |url=http://www.railsaroundthebay.net/history/commutes/schedules/index.html |access-date=2013-04-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070701131255/http://www.railsaroundthebay.net/history/commutes/schedules/index.html |archive-date=July 1, 2007 }}</ref>

Butler Road, the roadway itself, has been renamed Oyster Point Boulevard.<ref>{{cite book|title=South San Francisco (Images of America)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rET-mn_GSBkC&pg=PA4 |author=South San Francisco Historical Society |isbn=0-7385-2921-4 |date=2004|page=4|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|access-date=2013-04-04}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/img4/ht_icons/overlay/CA/CA_San%20Francisco%20South_300066_1947_24000_geo.jpg |title=1947 USGS South San Francisco map |date=1947 |publisher=USGS |access-date=27 December 2022}}</ref> The Peninsula Commute service was taken over by the State of California and renamed Caltrain in 1985.

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *Butler Road on a [https://web.archive.org/web/20070701131255/http://www.railsaroundthebay.net/history/commutes/schedules/index.html 1978 Peninsula Commute timetable] * {{cite web |url=http://bitsofhistory.plsinfo.org/thumnailtext.asp?offset=140&id=869 |title=Eastern South San Francisco. View north from Bethlehem Steel Company |date=1945 |website=Bits of History |publisher=Peninsula Library System |access-date=24 May 2018 }}{{Dead link|date=July 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} This photograph shows the train line (from the lower left corner), Butler Road (running from lower left to lower right), and the Western Pipe factory. * {{cite web |url=http://bitsofhistory.plsinfo.org/thumbnailtext.asp?offset=370&id=850 |title=South San Francisco during WW I |website=Bits of History |publisher=Peninsula Library System |access-date=24 May 2018 |quote=San Bruno Road (later Airport Boulevard), Bayshore Highway, Butler Road (later Oyster Point Road), and Division Avenue (later Dubuque Ave.) during World War I, South San Francisco, CA.}}

Category:Caltrain stations in San Mateo County, California Category:Former Southern Pacific Railroad stations in California Category:Former Caltrain stations Category:1983 disestablishments in California Category:Demolished railway stations in the United States Category:Railway stations in the United States closed in 1983