Forest Hill station (Muni Metro)

Forest Hill station is a Muni Metro station located near the Forest Hill and Laguna Honda neighborhoods on the West Side of 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.

Forest Hill
Forest Hill station headhouse in 2018
General information
Location	Laguna Honda Boulevard San Francisco, California
Coordinates	37°44′53″N 122°27′33″W
Owned by	San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency
Line(s)	Twin Peaks Tunnel
Platforms	2 side platforms
Tracks	2
Connections	Muni: 36, 43, 44, 52[1]
Construction
Structure type	Underground
Accessible	Yes
History
Opened	February 3, 1918
Rebuilt	1985
Services
Preceding station Muni Following station West Portal toward Balboa Park K Ingleside Castro toward Embarcadero West Portal toward SF Zoo L Taraval West Portal toward San Jose and Geneva (Balboa Park) M Ocean View West Portal Terminus S Shuttle
San Francisco Designated Landmark
Designated	2004[2]
Reference no.	231
Location

Scenes from the film Dirty Harry (1971)^[4] and Milk (2008)^[5] 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"^[6] 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. A single elevator shaft began operation eighteen months following the opening of the station and a second was installed in 1928 (which was the largest on the United States west coast at the time).^[7] 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 (equivalent to $17.5 million in 2024), which upgraded Forest Hill to equal the new stations while keeping its historic architecture, was completed in 1985.^[8][9]

History

Laguna Honda opened with the Twin Peaks Tunnel on February 3, 1918.^[10]: 70

The station was temporarily closed from June 25 to August 24, 2018, during the Twin Peaks Tunnel shutdown.^[11] 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.^[12][13][14]

See also

• List of San Francisco Designated Landmarks