The closed Route 66 Mother Road Museum in Barstow, California, will hold a grand reopening celebration on March 22.
The museum, located in a historic Harvey House complex on the city’s north side, will be open that day at 10 a.m.., with the celebration tentatively scheduled for 11 a.m.
After that, the museum will be open seven days a week, with tentative hours of from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The Barstow museum closed indefinitely last summer, then closed permanently not long after that.
The resurrection of the Route 66 Mother Road Museum is the brainchild of Brendan O’Brien, who also is developing property around the California Route 66 Museum in nearby Victorville.
O’Brien he was motivated to reopen the Barstow museum because of Route 66’s centennial in 2026. He said he also heard a lot of complaints and “letdowns” from travelers about the Barstow museum being shuttered.
The fact the Barstow museum is in a part of a beautiful complex, called Casa del Desierto, that dates to 1911 is a bonus.
“I love that Harvey House, and we’re blssed to be a part of the reopening,” he said. “It needs to be a part of the centennial.”
During the telephone interview Tuesday, O’Brien said he was getting ready to move an old Ford Model A into the museum. After the facility’s closure, its artifacts were distributed to other museums throughout Southern California, including the Victorville Route 66 museum.
O’Brien said he hopes to return some of that collection to Barstow, but he’s also entertaining offers from local residents who own intriguing artifacts. Those who might be interested in contributing to the museum should call 760-951-0436.
He said the Victorville museum also owns a substantial number of artifacts in storage that can be taken to Barstow.
The Route 66 Mother Road Museum opened in a wing of the Harvey House in 2000.
(Image of the Route 66 Mother Road Museum in Barstow, California, in 2023 via Facebook)