Gaslamp Museum at the Davis-Horton House

Gaslamp Museum at the Davis-Horton House

Gaslamp Museum at the Davis-Horton House
4
Wednesday
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Thursday
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Friday
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Saturday
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
About
The Gaslamp Museum is open for self-guided tours and audio tours Wednesday-Saturday 10am-4:00pm, Private tours Tuesday 10-4. Housed in the Davis-Horton House, the museum educates guests about the rich history of both the Gaslamp Quarter and San Diego. Explore the 1850s salt-box style home and the rotating exhibit in the basement gallery. Walking Tours of the Gaslamp Quarter are also offered. Historical and Architectural Walking Tours are Thursdays at 1pm and Saturdays at 11am. Ghosts of the Gaslamp Walking Tours are held Fridays at 5pm. Paranormal Investigations are held in the Davis-Horton House on a monthly basis.
Duration: < 1 hour
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

Popular mentions

4.0
4.0 of 5 bubbles78 reviews
Excellent
24
Very good
36
Average
17
Poor
1
Terrible
0

FuzzyBeaver
Montreal, Canada1,216 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2020
If you go, be sure to get the audio guide tour. The audio is extremely well done and provides lots of background and interesting stories. The house jam packed with artifacts, all with a story. It is small but definitely worth visiting.
Written March 5, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

joan h
Hayden Lake, ID10 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2021 • Friends
Tour guide, Jaime! Cool virtual candle-lit tour. Best birthday surprise for our friend! Rhiannon, was helpful in setting up your. Enjoyed so much...made second donation. Can't wait for Covid to be over, so we can all visit in person.
Written February 27, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Oliver S
New York City, NY11,509 contributions
3.0 of 5 bubbles
Dec 2015 • Couples
The house was on the move several times, built first by William Heath Davis (1950) and rented to the military for officers quarters, then inhabited by Alonzo Horton, the visionary behind modern day San Diego. The house kept moving and changing owners, until finally, a certain George Deyo, the adopted child of a German immigrants couple, the Lohmanns, decided to make some fast cash during Prohibition: he kept one room always locked claiming that it contains the ashes of his parents. When he passed away, the room was unsealed and $5,000 in gold was found inside, as well as a working whiskey still! You can still see the still upstairs in the original room.
The still is probably one of the very few original items in this house. Other than the wide-board floors upstairs, everything is rebuilt-reinvented. None of the furniture is original, they just put there everything they can dig from the period. Notice the two stoves one next to the other in the kitchen. Some of the stuff is not even period: the library contains three sets of modern encyclopedias! The stairway to the basement is graced with the photo of a happy contractor.
Admission is $5 for self tour, $10 for audio tour and parking is a huge problem: the closest acceptable parking we found was at the Santa Fe Depot (about ten blocks away, separate review) and it was $10 for 12 hours. In the first two places we tried the rate was $20 and $30 PER HOUR. How's that for NYC prices!
The Gaslamp Quarter Association conducts an Architectural Tour of the Gaslamp District (separate review) every Thursday & Saturday which starts at this house. You can purchase a $2 map of the tour in the Gift Shop.
Written December 26, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Thank you for your review Oliver! You are certainly right about parking around here, it is tough. However, we thought we would share a little parking trick! Horton Plaza, which is only three blocks away, has three hours of free parking until 9pm if you validate in the mall (no purchase required). I am sorry we are getting this info to you after the fact, but hopefully this helps for the next time you are in the area. - Happy Holidays!
Written December 30, 2015
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

john m
San Diego, CA41 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jan 2019
Such an amazing house with a ton of history. I would love to visit again no matter what time of year it is. The staff was incredibly friendly as well as knowledgeable of not only the Museum but, of San Diego itself. Highly recommend it to anyone that would be interested.
Written January 29, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

doctorbove
Sacramento, CA103 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Dec 2018 • Couples
Please do yourself a favor and stop in to see this museum. Deemed the oldest building in downtown San Diego, it is also said to be the "most haunted house in the Gaslamp quarter"! We learned about William Heath Davis as well as Alonzo Erastus Horton. The salt box type house has been moved three times over the years, and has served many different purposes. You leave the experience with an idea of Victorian life as it was, and a vast breadth of knowledge in San Diego history.
Written December 10, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

indymama1
Saint Simons Island, GA201 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Oct 2017 • Couples
We just finished the 90-minute Saturday morning walking tour of the Gaslight District with John (aka “Alonzo Horton”) as our very knowledgeable guide. We got a brief overview of the founding of San Diego, mainly driven by the real Mr. Horton in the mid-1800s. It was in many ways an architectural tour, with lovely old Victorian buildings pointed out that once housed banks, hardware stores, theaters, brothels, and saloons, but now feature taco houses, sushi bars and craft beer halls. The tour was peppered with interesting stories about San Diego characters of the past. Great if you are interested in history and architecture. Probably not so good for kids.
Written October 21, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

lisee43
rancho palos verdes, ca7 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2015 • Couples
We went to the William Heath Davis House because we are interested in ghosts and this house has one, so we wanted to take a tour. It is only $5 and when we told them we wanted to take the tour, he said $25....well we paid and came to find out we purchased the 2 hour Walking/Davis House tour. Boy are we glad we did! The walking tour was about 1.5 miles completely in the Gaslamp district. The history and stories provided by our tour guide was so interesting!! So many stories we never would have known about if we didn't take the tour. This is a must tour for historic value alone. The house itself was interesting, but I think we would have been disappointed if that's all we did. Fascinating stories!!
Written August 4, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

aw0rld2travel
Orlando, FL280 contributions
3.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2012 • Business
The William Heath Davis house is the oldest wooden structure in San Diego. It was shipped from Maine (around South America) as one of ten pre-fabricated homes. It has served as a residence, a military barracks, and a hospital. Its' 9 rooms are each decorated to represent a different period of time in the home's history. Rooms include a military room (1866), children's room (with old toys), a hospital room (pre-1900), a Victorian bedroom, and a study (complete with whiskey still). The house takes about 45 minutes to tour and costs $ 4. It is worth a quick visit. (One note - there are a lot of precious things within a child's reach....I would be careful of taking young children here.)
Written March 15, 2012
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Darco B
Spokane, WA68 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
I love history so the house was a planned stop on my Sand Diego trip. I didn't know until I got there, that they also have a Gaslamp District walking tour (on certain days.) The tour was very interesting and made the District much more interesting after hearing about the old buildings. A fair bit of walking - not for those who have a hard time getting around.
Written May 13, 2009
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Benkitato
Rehovot, Israel69 contributions
2.0 of 5 bubbles
Nov 2019
Took the Saturday Gaslamp walking tour. The guide was a nice person and she definitely knows about the place, but she wasn't a very good at being a guide. It was hard to understand what was she talking about, and she didn't make enough effort to make the stories sound interesting.
The walking tour does not include much walking (as the area is pretty small), so it's mostly standing and hearing about building which are not that interesting....
Compared to walking tours we took in other cities like NYC or Chicago, this one wasn't worth the time...
Written November 18, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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Gaslamp Museum at the Davis-Horton House - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

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