Atherton's Old Train Station Gets a Second Life This October

On Sunday, October 18, from 2 to 4 p.m., the Town of Atherton will hold a ribbon cutting at the old depot on Dinkelspiel Station Lane. The building reopens as the Atherton Train Station Museum. The Town is taking registrations through an Eventbrite QR code on its event listing. The Almanac's fall arts preview also lists the opening among the season's events.

Caltrain closed the station in 2020 because too few people used it, and the building now returns as a museum. It sits at the center of a short stretch of civic ground running from the library and Town Center to Holbrook-Palmer Park, and most of Atherton's public calendar for October through December takes place along that stretch.

A stop that ran out of riders

The station began in the 1860s as a flag stop called Fair Oaks. A flag stop had no regular service, so passengers signaled the train when they wanted it to stop. The Almanac's 2020 farewell to the station traces the name to the area's oak trees. It also explains that the town took the name Atherton when it incorporated in 1923, because a town near Sacramento already used Fair Oaks. The Town's own history says the line was the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad, built largely by Chinese laborers. Trains on that line helped evacuate thousands of refugees after the 1906 earthquake.

The building has changed several times. In 1913 a shelter depot replaced an earlier structure. The Town describes a modest wood-framed building with a terra cotta roof that later became a four-sided glass station, one of the few fully glass-enclosed railroad stations of its time. In the 1950s the station's features and windows were altered substantially and the depot was painted green. According to The Almanac, those changes are the reason the building did not qualify for the National Register.

The closure came down to ridership and cost. Caltrain's closure notice says weekday service ended in 2005. After that, trains stopped only on weekends, every 90 minutes, and averaged 114 passengers per weekend day. Caltrain's board voted to close the stop in November 2020. Keeping it open would have taken an upgrade of roughly $30 million, The Almanac reported in January 2020. That works out to about $263,000 for each weekend-day rider. The same story named Menlo Park and Redwood City as the nearest active stops.

The Town decided to keep the building and restore it rather than let it go.

Six years in the Town's paperwork

Like most small civic projects, this one moved through a series of council votes, and the opening date slipped more than once. The public record shows the sequence:

1. November 2022. The Almanac reported that the Town had hired Garavaglia Architecture, Inc. to design a small museum. The project had a $400,000 Caltrain grant behind it and a $300,000 construction estimate. The story also described the project role of Robert Ovadia, the Town's Public Works director.
2. April 19, 2023. The Town awarded Castillo Plumbing, Inc. of Hayward a $302,000 construction contract. Staff expected four to six months of construction, plus possible extra time to fit out the museum. By then the Town had committed $96,000 for design. It had also listed roughly $43,000 of additional work it wanted, including HVAC, restoring the monument sign, and cleaning and painting the clock. The same Almanac story said the original goal of opening for the Town's centennial that September might be missed.
3. April 17, 2024. The Council approved $50,000 plus a $10,000 contingency for the museum's next steps. The discussion covered donations, permanent loans, display cases, fundraising, and involving the library, according to the Town's summary.
4. May 2026. At its May 6 study session, the Council heard that the building renovation was complete and set the ribbon cutting for September 2026.
5. October 18, 2026. The opening date now on the Town calendar.

These figures come from different points in the process, and the Town has not published a final total cost. The Town also hasn't said why the opening moved from September to October.

What fits inside 620 square feet

The depot is small. The 2023 construction scope put it at 620 square feet. That scope also included restriping the accessible parking and a path into the building from Town Center and its parking. The Town's May 2026 update describes how the exhibits use that space. Six dioramas run down the center of the room, one for each era of the station. Recognition plaques and vertical display panels are already installed. The panels cover three subjects:

• Early peoples on the Peninsula
• The wagon stagecoach and Gold Rush era
• The railroad era

As of May, Town staff were still working on horizontal panels to sit in front of each diorama. Each panel will combine historical images, period-accurate pictures of trains, and written information about its era. The Town says the exhibits cover more than 150 years of railroad history, from early wood-burning locomotives to today's electric trains.

The 2022 design concept also called for a video display, benches, and a secured case for a model train tracing Atherton's rail history. None of the more recent Town material confirms that those pieces will be there on opening day.

The opening itself is planned with period music and will use both the station and the park area next to it. The Town has not yet published regular hours, staffing, or an access policy for after the ribbon cutting. Anyone hoping to bring a grandchild back on an ordinary weekday should check with the Town, because no schedule is available yet.

The station sits between the library and the park

The Town's other recent work explains why the depot matters. It sits between two public places that have both changed in the past year.

On the Town Center side, the Atherton Library opened a 6,200-square-foot Children's Garden with a ribbon cutting on June 27. It has a willow hut, a tree house, a branch tunnel, a climbing boulder, and an outdoor classroom, according to the San Mateo County Libraries announcement. On the other side, the playground at Holbrook-Palmer Park closed for renovation on May 4, 2026. The Town's park page still gives no reopening date.

The link between the two is also still being worked out. In its September 30 update, the Town reported that the Council had considered a design change to the Dinkelspiel Station Lane walkway between Town Center and the park. The options included one-way traffic, four public meetings, and a new crosswalk on Watkins Avenue. The walkway is still in design. It has not been built.

The park's courts are changing too. At the same meeting, the Council extended its agreement with Player Capital Tennis. Under the extension, Court 1 is open for pickleball whenever it isn't booked for tennis, a no-show policy is added, and lessons are limited to three courts on weekend and holiday mornings. The Council also approved $45,000 to design a conversion of the clay court to a hard court. That conversion would allow Court 1 to become four permanent pickleball courts.

The fall calendar around the station

Several of the season's public events are at the library, the depot, or Holbrook-Palmer Park, and the Town's own calendar adds a few more:

• Wednesday, October 14. Open Studio at Holbrook-Palmer Park, hosted by the Atherton Arts Foundation. The same day, the Atherton Library starts its Seasonal Tai Chi fall session.
• Saturday, October 17. The last of the Town's Get Ready Atherton emergency-preparedness meetups, at 48 Alameda de las Pulgas. Look for the red balloons.
• Sunday, October 18, 2 to 4 p.m. The Train Station Museum ribbon cutting and opening.
• Saturday, October 24. A watercolor painting workshop at Holbrook-Palmer Park, also from the Atherton Arts Foundation.
• Thursday, October 29, 3 to 5 p.m. The Halloween Spooktacular. The Friends of the Atherton Library list it as taking place at the library.
• Thursday, November 12, 6 p.m. A fall ADU mixer.
• Thursday, December 10, at sunset. The Tree Lighting. The Friends of the Library pair their December holiday event with cookie decorating in the Heritage Room.

The Town's October 7 notice says the digital Fall 2026 Athertonian is available online and features the museum opening. The September update tells residents to watch their mailboxes for the print issue.

Scott Dancer has worked in this part of the Peninsula since 1984 and has followed the Atherton depot from its weekend-only years to this month's reopening. If you would like to talk about the town around Holbrook-Palmer Park, how it is changing, and what that means for a property you own or are considering, let's connect.