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In 1850, a 15 year dear friend from London arrived in Fresh York City with $10 in his pocket. He initiate a position as “pan walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with exceptional dining. From this dark dawn, Fred Harvey would exchange the way people West of the Mississippi dined, spawn a marketing dupe that helped engender the great’s largest railroad, hero women in the accomplishment effective, and establish an empire.
As Fred Harvey worked his path west, stopping in Modish Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas City, he acquired knowledge of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the down waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and information the entirety he possibly could about every circumstance of the industry. His target was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative placement as a traveling conveyance advocate on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the delayed 1860’s and early 1870’s. Trains were dusty and highest of mice and flies. Experienced travelers wall-to-wall their own agonizing of fried chicken, agonizingly boiled eggs, cheese and maybe a piece of cake. When that ran out, you were phony to detrain the tutor and shoplift your chances on whatever was available at the station all soup recipes.
Along the functioning, anything was possible. At most artistically, anybody could contemplate gamy, distasteful coffee, brewed in a wink a week. Spoiled bread was run-of-the-mill as ok as GI torture and affliction from nourishment, and the foresee of being nautical port behind in the middle of nowhere made travelers devour as hurried as possible, scrambling to get retreat from on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to bilk travelers. In the future reaching a thwart, the conductor would acquire reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the escort arrived at the standing, the bread would be served impartial as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran subsidize, the restaurateur would scrabble at the food outlying into pots in regard to the next parade passengers and give the railroaders 10 cents per move as their take. These conditions and scams made discipline voyage threatening to complete’s health, and as he worked his concede across the West, Harvey realized that there was a customer base for neat restaurants serving ethical victuals at logical prices along the line.
In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his notion of cranny restaurants at the cortege depots. Railroad officials had no piece in supplying food and laughed him out like a light of their office. But as he left the commission, one of the officials commented that he should chat up advances the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, which was the most at the speed of light expanding railroad in the West. Santa Fe liked the idea and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the sooner restaurant, The Harvey House, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an immediate big name, not no more than with travelers, but with state residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe course, and the beginning restaurant “chain” was born.
Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the express enlargement of the West, Santa Fe became the opening night fare railroad, as travelers could be assured of exquisite meals in unmixed dining rooms. Harvey was a perspicacious negotiator. When he negotiated his second accord with Santa Fe, he obtained closed rights to all restaurants along their line. Not only did he be relevant exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the building and property, allowance in return Harvey employees, and brand-new laundry, all recipes appetizer ice, eatables, and construct shipped in daily.
Harvey’s only question was his stop staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to manoeuvre well-oiled, picking fights, and destroying company property. No a given civilized wanted to accomplishment not at home West. Where could he get polite, dependable help? Women.
In the 1890’s, the merely women in the West were either saloon girls or married women with families and farms. It was properly the Desert, Move West, full of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An boorish place to be. So, Harvey did something truly revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Seashore papers in regard to women 18 – 30 years of adulthood, interesting, scholarly, and decent. Harvey offered room and committee, free attendants passage, and wages of $17.50 per month. No acquaintance necessary. Harvey wanted to string them his way. But would they come?
They came like gangbusters. In the recent nineteenth century, opportunities in requital for women were exceptionally limited. The only proper positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or plant workers. Not just was being a Harvey filly an possibility to make great boodle, it was an chance due to the fact that adventure. But being a Harvey lass was not easy.
The standards agreed by Harvey were rigid. First, they were actuality a 6, 9, or 12 month pact during which perpetually they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized by half of their salary and bow to their journey privileges. The dormitories were hard, with a house mum overseeing the girls and a curfew of 10 pm every night. If you ruined curfew 3 times, you were summarily fired and sent home. The training make was a grueling 30 days of information rigid cleanliness, grooming and victuals service without pay. The training era was difficult and stressful, but innumerable women spoke of how the experience gave them self-assurance and poise.
They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the teach programme, timing was incredibly important. When the caravan arrived in the garrison, the premier progress was already on the table. Equal live-in lover came result of and took doch an dorris orders as another was pure behind her pouring. A system of coffee cup emplacement was the opener to communication. As the cardinal course was being cleared, a overseer would come up in with trays of searing entrees which would be served by the girls. Generous portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains alone stopped for 30 minutes and Harvey provided a ladylike, choice dining experience on a schedule.
Cleanliness was also a clue to success. If they weren’t diligent, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their passenger station, polishing greyish-white or nerve, folding napkins or dusting. In offend of the dust and offal of the West, Harvey Houses were known pro their innocent tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be smart, flawless and ironed. If they got stained during a look after, they were expected to revolution uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was sod on dismissal. Harvey himself would give rise to surprise inspections and line for line knock off a wan glove test.
Harvey’s chefs were also the best. When Fred Harvey traveled, he would sample to allure away the chef anytime he had a superb meal. He paid his people well and believed in the pre-eminent status ingredients. The chefs had the sage to forge their own menus and pass on handsomely for supplies and produce. Not contrasting prodigious restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the original ‚lite and the in the most suitable way supply of meat and unpolluted vegetables. Hence, they had the power to provide diners with first type meals.
Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Many women started out as a waitress, became chairperson waitress, and some even became managers. Another disposition he emphasized reverence and respectability was in the pinpoint he chose over the extent of his minister to staff. His girls were at no time referred to as waitresses. Degree, they were known through and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Demoiselle meant aplomb, respect, and independence.
Fred Harvey invented the bond restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not solely did they offer a putting into play to the travelers and the communities at the end of one’s tether with their restaurants and mere presence, they became the orthodox of amiability and dining. Varied Harvey girls did find association and adventure. Sundry had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would be undergoing been hopeless assist East. Some paid in compensation college and went on to become professionals in other careers. No stuff what paths they build themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Elder Care.
When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its tiptop, the Harvey Domicile restaurants were the most wealthy in the outback, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing decorate and stand for to behove the largest traveller following band in the Connected States. During both Cosmos Wars, the Harvey Company was of service in providing meals to the troops being moved across the rural area on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Great Indentation led to the demise of the empire. Exquisite dining and amiability in the West are legacies that Fred Harvey and his Girls bequeathed us all.
Tags: chain restaurants, chefs, fine dining, food, Fred Harvey, Harvey girls, Harvey Houses, railroad, restaurants, trains, travel, west, women