page_title: Belen, New Mexico
section_title: Museums
hierarchical_section_title: Belen, New Mexico / Culture / Museums
caption_attribution_description: English: Harvey House Museum, Belen, New Mexico.
context_page_description: Belen is the second most populous city in Valencia County, New Mexico, United States, after its county seat, Los Lunas. The population was 7,269 at the 2010 Census.
  Belen is Spanish for Bethlehem but gained the nickname "The Hub City". The city is geographically near the center of New Mexico and has been a significant transportation hub for central New Mexico that includes access to rail, the interstate highway and air at Valencia County's only public airport.
  Belen is at the southern end of the Albuquerque Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city is located 35 miles south of Albuquerque.
context_section_description: Belen has the only Harvey House Museum in New Mexico. The Santa Fe railroad arrived in Belen in 1880, when Belen was a small farming community. For the next 25 years, there was little train traffic through Belen, because the main rail line went west from Albuquerque. In 1908, the railroad opened a new line that avoided the steep grades over Raton Pass. This new line was the Belen cut-off, and it routed many more trains through Belen. Shortly after the new development, Belen began to bustle.
  Rail passengers who stopped in Belen needed a place to get a good meal, so in 1910, the railroad built a Harvey House restaurant right by the railroad tracks. It was the 86th restaurant in the chain, operated by Fred Harvey. It contained a large lunchroom, a more formal dining room, a newsstand, kitchen facilities, a bakery, and sleeping rooms upstairs for the Harvey Girls who served the meals.
  That Harvey House is still standing today. It houses memorabilia pertaining to the Harvey House and the Santa Fe Railway, as well as exhibits on early local businesses and residents in Belen.
  The Belen Harvey House is the official railroad museum of the State of New Mexico and is a branch of the Belen Public Library.
caption: Harvey House Museum
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