During an early December journey through southern California, we overnighted in Barstow in order to spend most of a morning exploring the town’s splendid railway station.

The building that currently serves as a stop for Amtrak’s Southwest Chief once offered food and lodging for passengers on Santa Fe’s famed El Capitan and Super Chief trains that transported movie stars, business executives, and families between Chicago and Los Angeles. The station that served these passengers has been lovingly renovated. What a beautiful building it is!

Barstow’s Casa del Desierto (House of the Desert) was one of the famed Harvey Houses operated by entrepreneur Fred Harvey for the Atchinson, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF). Harvey, an English emigrant, convinced AT&SF railway executives to build a series of restaurants and lodging facilities along its railroad lines that would be operated by Harvey’s company.

Some Harvey operations consisted only of newsstands or restaurants, while others also offered overnight lodging.

Barstow’s Casa del Desierto had 25 guest rooms, dormitories for male and female employees, and a restaurant plus a large, horseshoe-shaped lunch counter. Other full-service Harvey Houses along the same rail line included the El Garces in Needles, Calif., and the La Posada in Winslow, Ariz. The La Posada remains in operation while the El Garces was recently restored after many years of neglect.

Barstow’s Harvey House opened in 1913 on the site of an earlier wooden depot that burned in 1908. The new complex consisted of three buildings connected by covered walkways.

The western building was primarily reserved for Santa Fe employees, while the central building served as the main depot with a ticket office, baggage room, and waiting room.

The eastern building housed the hotel and restaurant. This was a grand place where Santa Fe passengers enjoyed stylish food service by the famed Harvey Girls recruited from eastern states.

Harvey’s operations were said to “civilize the West.”

Like many businesses, passenger trains eventually lost out to a formidable competitor; in this case the automobile. Improved highways resulted in an increasing preference for travel by automobile.

The rapid decline in rail passengers spelled an end to the era of Harvey Houses. The Casa del Desierto closed in 1973 and subsequently fell into disrepair before being saved from demolition in 1990 by the city of Barstow.

The city utilized federal funds for a major rehabilitation with a rededication of the building in 1999. The former Harvey House found use as a professional office building and visitor center.

While the visitor center has departed, the Casa del Desierto is now home to offices, two museums and a visitor center for a nearby NASA project. It has two large attractive ballrooms that are available for rent.

Our first stop on this sunny December morning was the Route 66 Mother Road Museum where we were greeted by volunteers Debra and Ken Hodkin.

Debra, manager and curator of the museum, offered a short history of her organization that moved into the building in 2000. The museum is filled with old signs, photos, cars, motorbikes and much more. A variety of books, T-shirts, mugs and other Route 66-related items are for sale.

Then it was over to the opposite side of the building for a visit to the Western America Railroad Museum where we talked with volunteers John and Middie Crawford.

What could be more fitting than a railroad museum in a former Harvey House?

John enjoyed a long career with the Santa Fe and proved to be a storehouse of knowledge about anything to do with railroads and the local Harvey House. The museum is filled with vintage photos, a locomotive driver simulator, railroad employee uniforms and more. Rolling stock, including a 1967 Santa Fe locomotive, sit outside the museum entrance.

Following an hour exploring the railroad museum we returned to the building’s main entrance and visited the second floor where we explored the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex Visitor Center. What a great place this is!

Goldstone is one of three facilities in the world that communicate with spacecraft in the deepest parts of the solar system. The complex, located about 40 miles northeast of Barstow, no longer offers public tours.

Gladstone’s visitor center alone is worth a stop in Barstow. The center is spread through several rooms with informative posters, models and interactive exhibits. We spent a little over an hour exploring the rooms, but a visitor could easily spend two hours or more in the visitor center.

So, the next time you are barreling down Interstate 40 or getting your kicks on old Route 66, we recommend you take a break and explore Barstow’s former Harvey House. It’s worth your time.

David and Kay Scott are authors of “Complete Guide to the National Park Lodges” (Globe Pequot). Visit them at mypages.valdosta.edu/dlscott/Scott.html. They live in Valdosta, Ga.

If You Go

Location: The Barstow Harvey House is at 685 N. First Ave. Turn north off E. Main St. (old Route 66) and cross the bridge over the railroad tracks.

Hours: 8:30 am. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

Gladstone visitor center: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

Railroad museum: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Route 66 museum: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.