Museum was closed for the pandemic. Picniced on a bench by the tracks. Beautiful historic building, grounds and old train engines and cars.

This is a nice small railroad museum housed in a train depot built in 1911. Trains constantly roll through the large railroad yard and Amtrak stops here for pickups. There are several old passenger cars displayed in the parking lot. There are lots of memorabilia in several rooms on the ground floor of this 3-story building and there is a nice model train layout. One can operate a train using a simulator, too. In addition to the railroad museum, the second floor houses the NASA Goldstone Deep Space visitor education center. Barstow is the closest location of one of only 3 dish antenna complexes of the Goldstone Deep Space Network (DSN) used by NASA and JPL to communicate with manned and unmanned spacecraft. The other 2 locations are in Australia and Spain. There are stickers and posters to take for free. Be sure to ask the very nice guide/docent to emboss your poster with the dish antenna stamper! Finally, there is also a small route 66 museum and gift shop in another part of the building. All of this is free and Harvey House is close to the 15 interstate and, I believe, worth the time to visit. Stop by on your way in or out at Mega Toms burgers next to McDonalds for burger and fries.

This is a great place, either as a destination or to take a long stop while travelling. The train yard is very busy, with the trains right in front of you. There is also a train museum and many older trains on side tracks to look over closely. Also, Harvey Houses are a part of history. Train buffs, you need to see this.

If you like historical places the Harvey House is a must. The museum part is open on Fridays, Sat. & Sun. I happen to show up on Monday but the museum part was closed. As I walked around, I discovered the lobby part of the building was opened and spoke with the security guard. She was a wealth of info. on everything I wanted to know about the Harvey House(s). I was allowed to walk through two grand ballrooms that both served as dinningrooms long ago. I was also welcomed to walk around on the second floor and enjoy a NASA exhibit. I will definately go back when the museum portion is open!

The railroad museum was one of the best around. Would stop again

When we got here we thought it was closed but the guard invited us in, she was so sweet and knowledgeable about the Harvey Houses. Not a lot to see but the chandeliers are worth the shop.

Even though I had gone on day in which the museum was closed, I still enjoyed my visit here. The NASA exhibit upstairs was pretty cool and has many interactive touch screen monitors for information about space. The staff was very helpful and its always fun to see trains.

Very friendly people and enjoyed talking to them. So much history to learn from here and its a fascinating history. And for being a railroad buff, a great place to sit and watch trains.

DO NOT rent for events its too bad because its a nice venue unfortunately crooked people run it. If you do use them make sure you take your own pictures of every space and scratch and stain before and after your event. I had an event there and almost 2 weeks of calling for status of my deposit and getting the run around now there was damage that was done almost 2 months after the event. They keep deposits and because its an outside company that handles it not the city of Barstow even though they own the building the City uses that excuse to not take responsibility. They use True Liberty Protection Services which is supposedly a business located in Hesperia. Its a city building owned by the city yet they have a company outside of Barstow run it. City of Barstow is just so dirty and deceptive and so unprofessional I am sure someone is getting kick backs for deposits not being returned or so called damage. No walk through was done before or after the event. No phone calls from the city nor true liberty to inform me of any damage only until I started calling about my deposit. I will never rent any city owned property here in Barstow for any events after this experience just terrible. Merry Xmas to me.

So far we (Glen Clark from Stories of the Dark podcast) got to walk around the museums, and around the outside. We still need to go during the week to see inside. We love checking out old possibly haunted places.

I love historic buildings and trains. So a historic train station is always a delightful side jaunt on any road trip. I could only admire this one from the exterior as it was a holiday and closed. So sad!

This place is adorable. The people that work there are super nice

Beautiful place and so much history! The staff has so much knowledge to share. Everyone was friendly and very helpful!

Well worth a visit into a history most folks have never heard of.

Railroad museum was closed (its open only few days a week) so I didnt see that but the rest of the area has basically nothing interesting to offer.

Great place and well kept!

Very nice and clean..

Staff very helpful. Entrance is on the track side of the building.

The Harvey House is a beautiful museum. It was fun to see a piece of history that is so well kept.

Inscription: Harvey Houses were legendary in the history of Western rail travel. Operated by Fred Harvey in conjunction with this Santa Fe Railway, the network of restaurant-hotels set a new standard in quality meal service. Barstows Spanish-Moorish Casa Del Desierto opened in 1911 and closed in 1971. It was registered as one of the last and finest remaining examples of the Wests famous Harvey Houses.

Such a BEAUTIFUL place! I remember bringing my grandparents here to catch the train home to Kansas & now our daughter is having her wedding here! Lots of places for photo ops too, inside & out! Absolutely GORGEOUS architecture! The museums are worth checking out and the kids will love the trains

The people that we met were very nice. museum wasnt open. more signage or directions to get there would be helpful. It wasnt the easiest to find.

Love coming here. Great museums annnd ive been told its even haunted. Harvey house is on an episode of ghost adventures.

Nice building, interesting lighting fixtures. Empty except for plaques about Harvey and the staff. Upstairs is info about NASA.

Nice clean place, it was closed by the time we arrived. But still nice old trains there.

Went for a viewing, its nice except there are no signs telling where is what and what is where.

There was a public event about the Jupiter probe exploration missions held here. If you are into space and Astronomy, the presentation by a JPL employee was educational and interesting. Very nice place too.

In the process of renovation. 2 museums.

Lots of really cool railroad history. 9yo enjoyed it

I moved to Barstow 12 yrs ago. I volunteered at the Route 66 museum. There is another museum at the Harvey house called the rairoad museum. Both are very interesting. They have programs at the Harvey House where Astronaunts put on various programs regarding different planets etc. They use this historic place for special luncheons, dinners etc. If a person wishes they can be married there. Several train tracks are in front of the Harvey house and still used today. Great place of much historical value here.

Disappointing! Not much Harvey House memorabilia or information. You can rent it for events though. The Route 66 museum next to it is good! The train museum was closed though, they should sync up their hours.

A lot of history, but unfortunately I few people visit.

Great place to visit. Has Goldstone visitors center, trains, history!

Very historic and I go once a week to watch trains and relax

Nice please to visit.

The best place to visit in Barstow very educational for our grandchildren

This was an accidental find and then to also have a NASA museum upstairs was great

Small but verry cute

Nice that the building was saved, too bad the state will not allow a hotel back in the building

The Goldstone exhibit was especially interesting to see, as both my father and I had worked there.

I got there on a Sunday and it was closed I expected to have lunch or breakfast and it looks to me like they dont serve

Great venue a little pricey. Need to cater to the community more.

Shouldve figured being in Barstow these people are sketchy, they give me receipts saying those werent the final amounts, makes no sense, then they never answer the phone not even the owners cell phone, then they lie on the deposit return saying this and that so if u want to book this place and dont care about being lied too or getting your deposit back then this place is for you

Also train museum, space exhibit, very beautiful views

Fun historical site for a visit/quick stretch

Nice place to visit and people are very helpful

Nice NASA exhibit.

Worth the stop to see a little railroad history.

Good to see the past.

Lovely building, lots and lots of history there

Went to NASA deep space museum.

Its kind of neat.

Very very nice

Many business offices in area.

Very cool place

Big

Sucks no working area or restrooms

Nice place

Wow! You have to visit.

Great place!

Don t drive past it spend a few minutes to check it out