Harvey House, Barstow

"Oh wow, what an amazing train station or what's known as Harvey's House back in the days. There's a railway museum (open on Friday and weekends only) and a curious NASA showcase. They also have two large rooms opened as a showcase with pretty unique lamps!"

"Located inside the historic Barstow train station, you will be able to experience a taste of what it must have been like back in the early 1900s, while traveling by train across the country. This location was built in 1911 and would serve as one of the 84 Harvey Houses operated by the Fred Harvey Company, which included restaurants, hotels and dining cars. At the time of Fred Harvey’s death in 1901, the company had 47 restaurants, 15 hotels and30 dining cars in operation and bought a certain type of upscale class to rail travel. As you enter the station, you will marvel at the size and attention to detail that once, and to some extent still does, adorned this station. There are two large dining areas, one to the right, which required one to wear a jacket and was very upscale, and to the left was the common dining area with one of the now famous Harvey dining counters, which was able to serve over 100+ people at a time. And we cannot forget about the roughly 5,000 Harvey Girls who moved out west to work at these restaurants earning $17.50 per month, plus free room, board and uniforms. Who could ever forget the 1946 musical/comedy starring Judy Garland called “The Harvey Girls”. The place is now empty and unfortunately the upstairs hotels rooms have now been converted into city offices and the NASA Goldstone Visitor Center, and there are only a few photos left of what the rooms looked like. Still, this is a great piece of history and will be worth the visit."

"A true staple of Barstow’s history and impressive railroad operations! The property features ceaseless opportunities for photogenic creative visions to flourish. We intended to visit the Route 66 & NASA Museum while here. Unfortunately, both were closed, one deemed indefinitely."

"Greatly preserved with some history of the building in its walls. The second floor is dedicated to more exhibits, mostly about NASA and related to science. The entrance is free"

"It was closed due to the holidays but had train cars and a couple locomotives u can look at. Only sad part is that u can see that there was vandalism on several train cars. The building is nice piece of history that is beautiful to look at."