Western Hotel Museum

Visitors and staff at the Western Hotel Museum report footsteps crossing the wooden floors of both storeys, a scratchy record playing with no source, and the scent of vanilla and old flowers in particular rooms. The Gilroy family built the Western Hotel in 1888 on land belonging to the Southern Pacific Railroad, and it is the oldest surviving building in Lancaster. Its large dining room served as the town's de facto public hall, and the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce was founded there; between 1905 and 1913 the hotel housed crews building the Los Angeles–Owens River Aqueduct. It became California Historical Landmark No. 658 in 1958 and is now the Western Hotel Museum, open to the public.