32 Grand Old Railway Hotels Left Vacant Along Forgotten Routes

5. El Garces Hotel (Harvey House), Needles, California, USA: Desert Railway Queen's Intermission

Once a jewel of Fred Harvey's famed chain, El Garces opened in 1908, a luxurious Mission Revival oasis serving passengers on the Santa Fe Railway in the Mojave Desert. Known for its elegant dining room and "Harvey Girls," it thrived for decades. But with the decline of passenger rail, El Garces closed its hotel operations in 1949 and eventually fell into decades of vacancy and disrepair, a silent testament to a more gracious era of travel. Though recently restored and repurposed, its long period of abandonment cemented its legendary status.