DVDs and Slide Shows Playing in the Museum

History of Fred Harvey and the Harvey Girls

DVD - Railroad Handcar in the Movies

San Bernardino Society of California Pioneers

DVD's of Various Trains and Railroads

  
History of San Bernardino Fire Department

Santa Fe Shops in San Bernardino
DVD - The History of BNSF & the Santa Fe

DVD -The History of Pacific Electric

Santa Fe Depot (1886-1916)

Museum Houses 19th Century Gas Lamp

Gas and Electric Lights Come to the City of San Bernardino 

In 1881 the National Gas Company of New York, secured a franchise and put in an extensive [gas] plant.

November 2nd, 1881, the city [of San Bernardino] was first lighted by gas and the Times of that date declares: "Gas under the new dispensation was a brilliant success as was abundantly made manifest last evening."

[In 1891] the city was first lighted by electricity, the San Antonio Electric Co. putting in from 500 to 800 incandescent lights.

(Ingersoll's Century Annuals of San Bernardino County, 1769-1904, pp. 169 & 383)

Clocks in the Museum

Mudge Motor Car

  A Replacement for

       the Handcar

Mudge Inspection Car

Built in 1917

Engine: Two-Cycle &     Air-Cooled

Gold Scale from Starke's Hotel now in the Museum

 

This gold-weighting scale, used in the late 1800s, sat behind the registration counter of Starke's Hotel.  The hotel was built in 1880 by Augustus Starke, replacing the 1858 Pine's Hotel that had been built on the same site.

The Starke's Hotel, shown in the above photograph, was the first two-story brick hotel in San Bernardino and was located at the southeast corner of 3rd Street and Arrowhead Avenue.

The gold scale was donated to the San Bernardino History and Railroad Museum in 2008 by William Starke, the great-great-grandson of Augustus Starke.

Antique Fire Department Apparatus in the Museum

1853 Hook & Ladder; San Bernardino owned one in the late 1800's c. 1860 - Four Wheeled "Hose Carriage", Built by George Ruhl

1878 Hose Cart used by San Bernardino Fire DepartmentSan Bernardino 1890 Hose Wagon as Seen in Eight Rose Parades

Click here to see a glimpse of the Fred Harvey Company and its role in San Bernardino as depicted in one of our Photo Histories.  

View a Harvey Girl uniform and a variety of Harvey artifacts on your next visit to the Museum.