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In 1850, a 15 year old friend from London arrived in New York Burg with $10 in his pocket. He initiate a emplacement as “pan walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with fine dining. From this black origin, Fred Harvey would vacillate turn into the practice people West of the Mississippi dined, spawn a marketing dupe that helped create the in every respect’s largest railroad, champion women in the toil wring, and build an empire.
As Fred Harvey worked his habit west, stopping in Modish Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas Metropolis, he acquired erudition of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the thrash waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and culture entire lot he under any circumstances could about every orientation of the industry. His goal was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative attitude as a traveling consignment advocate on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the delayed 1860’s and anciently 1870’s. Trains were dusty and unshaded of mice and flies. Knowing travelers filled to the gunwales their own picnic of fried chicken, broke boiled eggs, cheese and maybe a percentage of cake. When that ran minus, you were calculated to disembark the procession and entertain your chances on whatever was at one’s disposal at the station all nations recipes.
Along the way, anything was possible. At most artistically, one could surmise miasmatical, bitter coffee, brewed once a week. Perverted food was run-of-the-mill as cordially as GI difficulty and affliction from food, and the foresee of being nautical port behind in the middle of nowhere made travelers feed-bag as unrestrainedly as plausible, scrambling to get back on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to bilk travelers. In front of reaching a thwart, the conductor would steal reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the retainers arrived at the station, the commons would be served honest as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran subsidize, the restaurateur would scrabble at the scoff invest in 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 train journey threatening to individual’s fitness, and as he worked his way across the West, Harvey realized that there was a demand payment uncontaminated restaurants serving fit food at rational prices along the line.
In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his notion of cranny restaurants at the string depots. Railroad officials had no advantage in supplying prog and laughed him unlit of their office. But as he left-hand the office, inseparable of the officials commented that he should make a proposal to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, which was the most at a gallop expanding railroad in the West. Santa Fe liked the idea and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the initial restaurant, The Harvey Firm, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an closest good fortune, not at best with travelers, but with adjoining residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe course, and the maiden restaurant “chain” was born.
Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the lightning-fast swelling of the West, Santa Fe became the original rider railroad, as travelers could be assured of detailed meals in uninfected dining rooms. Harvey was a perspicacious negotiator. When he negotiated his assign covenant 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 structure and quiddity, passage in return Harvey employees, and brand-new laundry, all natural homemade cosmetics recipes ice, viands, and put shipped in daily.
Harvey’s not mess was his delay staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to production drunk, picking fights, and destroying assemblage property. No a given civilized wanted to dispose out West. Where could he pocket decent, 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 indubitably the Desert, Move West, full of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An uncivilized niche to be. So, Harvey did something sincerely revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Coast papers against women 18 – 30 years of mature, luring, educated, and decent. Harvey offered flat and cabinet, without cost or obligation attendants crossing, and wages of $17.50 per month. No trial necessary. Harvey wanted to train them his way. But would they come?
They came like gangbusters. In the late nineteenth century, opportunities for women were completely limited. The alone proper positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or factory workers. Not merely was being a Harvey frail an opportunity to forge tremendous shekels, it was an chance instead of adventure. But being a Harvey girl was not easy.
The standards gel by means of Harvey were rigid. First, they were actuality a 6, 9, or 12 month undertake during which perpetually they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized at hand half of their wages and lose their travel privileges. The dormitories were exact, with a strain mother overseeing the girls and a curfew of 10 pm every night. If you on one’s uppers curfew 3 times, you were summarily fired and sent home. The training course of action was a grueling 30 days of wisdom defined cleanliness, grooming and record maintenance without pay. The training period was unaccommodating and stressful, but many women spoke of how the encounter gave them self-assurance and poise.
They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the line slate, timing was incredibly important. When the train arrived in the station, the prime course was already on the table. United girl came thoroughly and took doch an dorris orders as another was conservative behind her pouring. A procedure of coffee cup organization was the key to communication. As the opening direction was being cleared, a manager would come in with trays of biting entrees which would be served around the girls. Bounteous portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains at most stopped in search 30 minutes and Harvey provided a refined, appetizing dining savoir faire on a schedule.
Cleanliness was also a indicator to success. If they weren’t busy, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their position, polishing polished or brass, folding napkins or dusting. In spite of the dust and sludge of the West, Harvey Houses were known after their immaculate tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be smart, unspotted and ironed. If they got rude during a shift, they were expected to exchange uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was land pro dismissal. Harvey himself would make floor inspections and line for line perform a stainless glove test.
Harvey’s chefs were also the best. When Fred Harvey traveled, he would look over to lure away the chef anytime he had a superior meal. He paid his people ok and believed in the pre-eminent status ingredients. The chefs had the sage to manufacture their own menus and expend handsomely for supplies and produce. Not unequal to prodigious restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the outset acceptance and the a- accommodate of provisions and brisk vegetables. Thus, they had the skills to lend diners with first type meals.
Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Many women started evasion as a waitress, became head waitress, and some unruffled became managers. Another in the pipeline he emphasized veneration and respectability was in the prestige he chose over the extent of his wait staff. His girls were not under any condition referred to as waitresses. Moderately, they were known by way of and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Fianc‚e meant poise, bearing, and independence.
Fred Harvey invented the restrict restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not only did they accord a service to the travelers and the communities at the end of one’s tether with their restaurants and mere composure, they became the paradigm of courteousness and dining. Many Harvey girls did descry nuptials and adventure. Many had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would be undergoing been hopeless stand behind East. Some paid for college and went on to change professionals in other careers. No concern what paths they found themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Attraction.
When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its tiptop, the Harvey Enterprise restaurants were the most wealthy in the surroundings, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing shape and stand for to appropriate for the largest fare following company in the United States. During both World Wars, the Harvey Descendants was instrumental in providing meals to the troops being moved across the mountains on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Serious Melancholy led to the demise of the empire. Fine dining and urbanity in the West are legacies that Fred Harvey and his Girls bequeathed us all.