Visiting Bakersfield, United States: Top Sights on Foot

Wondering about the best things to do in Bakersfield? This city in California’s San Joaquin Valley brings together preserved local history, downtown architecture, museums, visual arts, country music and memorials that tell the story of the community. Neywo has a free audio guide for Bakersfield with 25 narrated places, making it easy to explore while you walk.

Bakersfield is part of California, in the United States. Its landmarks reflect the region’s pioneer past, oil economy, cultural life and recovery after the 1952 earthquake.

What to See in Bakersfield

Kern County Museum and Pioneer Village

The Kern County Museum occupies sixteen acres on the old Kern County Fairgrounds. Its centerpiece is Pioneer Village, a collection of more than fifty original structures relocated from across the county. The buildings date from the late nineteenth century and recreate the feel of a working pioneer settlement.

The village includes a one-room schoolhouse, church, photography studio, train depot, hotel, courthouse and assay office. Wooden oil equipment also recalls petroleum’s long-standing importance to the local economy. Because the structures are original rather than replicas, the museum offers a particularly tangible introduction to Kern County’s past.

Kern County Chamber of Commerce Building

On the Kern County Museum campus, the Kern County Chamber of Commerce Building stands out for its combination of Beaux Arts, Mission Revival and Arts and Crafts influences. Its location beside Sam Lynn Ballpark and the Beale Memorial Clock Tower makes it a useful stop when exploring the city’s historic and civic landmarks.

The nearby Lori Brock Children’s Discovery Center focuses on hands-on learning. Its Makers Annex and STEAM Town encourage children to build, experiment, create and perform.

Bakersfield Museum of Art

Located in Central Park at 19th and R Streets, the Bakersfield Museum of Art begins outdoors, with gardens and sculptures leading visitors toward the building. The museum was established in 1956 by the Walter Osborn family as the Cunningham Art Gallery, named after their daughter Marion Osborn Cunningham.

Inside, four galleries occupy 17,400 square feet. The permanent collection highlights regional artists, while traveling exhibitions bring other artistic perspectives to Bakersfield. The museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and serves as both an exhibition space and a regional cultural institution.

The Arts District

Bakersfield’s Arts District is a compact downtown area dedicated to visual and performing arts. Banners from the Arts Council of Kern mark the neighborhood, while galleries and theaters cluster around 19th Street and Eye Street.

The Art Center Gallery, operated by the Bakersfield Art Association, combines exhibitions with education. Its rotating shows include oil and watercolor paintings, sculpture, photography and mixed media by local artists.

Fox Theater

The Fox Theater has anchored downtown Bakersfield’s arts scene since it opened on Christmas Day in 1930. Its first screening was Just Imagine, a science-fiction film set fifty years in the future.

The theater was built with poured concrete over steel, a construction method that helped it withstand the devastating 1952 earthquake. Today it remains a performance venue and the home of FLICS, Bakersfield’s foreign film series, which runs from fall through spring. Its continued use gives this historic building a living role in the city rather than leaving it as a purely architectural landmark.

Jastro Building

Also known as the Standard Oil Building, the Jastro Building is a two-story landmark in a late Second Renaissance Revival style. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

The first section was built in 1917, followed by a major wing in 1921 that added 10,000 square feet. Its facade features vertical casement windows, transoms, a recessed porch at the entrance and molded arches around the second-story center windows. The unusual floor plans shift from a C shape on the first floor to an H shape above.

Nile Theatre

The Nile Theatre is a historic movie theater in Bakersfield. It adds another layer to the city’s downtown entertainment history, alongside the Fox Theater and the area’s other cultural venues.

Bakersfield Californian Building

Built as the headquarters of The Bakersfield Californian, this building has served as the newspaper’s home since it opened. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 for its architecture and its role in Bakersfield’s media history.

The complex consists of two structures faced in reddish-brown brick. The main building rises four stories and developed an L-shaped footprint through later additions. Its entrance is approached by seven wide granite steps and framed by polished brass double glass doors.

Bakersfield City Hall and the Thomas Baker statue

Bakersfield City Hall stands in the downtown Civic Center and houses the Mayor’s office and City Council chambers. Completed in 1954, it replaced the original building destroyed by the 1952 Kern County earthquake.

In front of City Hall is a bronze statue of Colonel Thomas Baker, the city’s founder. The seated figure holds a document and represents Baker’s role as both an intellectual and a pioneer. The statue is California Historical Landmark number 382.

Kern Veterans Memorial

At Truxtun Avenue and S Street, the Kern Veterans Memorial honors every Kern County resident who has served in the armed forces, during peacetime and war.

The memorial’s circular plaza contains two winding paths representing the challenges veterans face through life. A central fountain rises through granite and glass elements, while nine flags represent the United States, California and each branch of the armed forces. The Wall of Valor records the names of those who gave their lives, etched in gold on glass panels.

Father Francisco Garcés

At the Garces Memorial Traffic Circle, a limestone statue honors Father Francisco Garcés, a Spanish Franciscan friar who traveled through the Kern region in 1776. The monument stands at a junction built in the early 1930s as part of U.S. Route 99, now designated California Historical Landmark Number 277.

Sculptor John Palo-Kangas created the statue under the Federal Art Project during the Depression. The figure was carved from a single twenty-four-ton block of Indiana limestone and set on a Carnelian granite base.

Mill Creek

Mill Creek is a district east of downtown where homes, businesses and green space have grown around the Kern Island Canal. The name recalls a mill that once stood on the canal and used its waterway.

Today, the canal has been reimagined as a walking path. Central Park at Mill Creek, established alongside the canal in 1937, forms the heart of the district and gives visitors a place to experience the area’s transformation from working waterway to urban public space.

McMurtrey Aquatic Center

Near Mechanics Bank Arena, the McMurtrey Aquatic Center has served the community since June 2004. Its facilities include a heated Olympic-sized competition pool with nine 25-yard lanes and nine 50-meter lanes, along with diving boards.

A separate recreation pool covers more than 8,500 square feet and includes zero-depth entry, double water slides, a plunge pool, interactive play features and a water volleyball zone. The center was designed for both casual swimmers and elite athletes.

Buck Owens Crystal Palace

The Buck Owens Crystal Palace is a music hall, nightclub, bar and museum dedicated to country-western music. Buck Owens opened it in 1996 after developing the idea during the mid-1980s, when he wanted an upscale but authentic home for the genre.

The building’s Western Revival design evokes a nineteenth-century American Old West town, with wooden storefronts and period details. The Buck Owens Museum wraps around the first floor, displaying guitars, stage costumes, awards and photographs from Owens’s career.

Explore Bakersfield with Neywo

For a Bakersfield self-guided walking tour, download Neywo and explore the city at your own pace. Bakersfield has two walking tours and one bus route:

• Pioneer Village to Downtown: Oil Money and Earthquake Survivors — 4.44 km, 113 minutes and 12 narrated stops.
• Mill Creek and the Civic Center — 2.61 km, 70 minutes and 8 narrated stops.
• GET 45 Across Downtown Bakersfield — a 15.3 km bus route lasting 66 minutes, with 6 narrated stops.

The free Bakersfield audio guide includes 25 narrated places. Each story plays as you reach the place, so you can explore without a group and without a schedule, moving at your own pace. Narration is available in 11 languages.