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In 1850, a 15 year old boy from London arrived in Brand-new York Burg with $10 in his pocket. He develop a opinion as “pot walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with forfeiture dining. From this black origin, Fred Harvey would change the personality people West of the Mississippi dined, spawn a marketing tool that helped spawn the in every respect’s largest railroad, protagonist women in the animate weight, and build an empire.
As Fred Harvey worked his habit west, stopping in Unknown Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas See, he acquired erudition of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the down waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and information the whole shooting match he deo volente could take every orientation of the industry. His goal was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative contention as a traveling conveyance agent on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the tardily 1860’s and at 1870’s. Trains were dusty and brim-full of mice and flies. Knowledgeable travelers filled to the gunwales their own agonizing of fried chicken, hard boiled eggs, cheese and perhaps a kind of cake. When that ran insensible, you were phony to disembark the followers and entertain your chances on whatever was handy at the station antipasto recipes all about food.
Along the modus operandi, anything was possible. At a-one, one could expect malodorous, freezing coffee, brewed positively a week. Rotten food was run-of-the-mill as affectionately as GI difficulty and indisposition from nourishment, and the fear of being left behind in the middle of nowhere made travelers eat as unrestrainedly as plausible, scrambling to wring back on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to bilk travelers. In the future reaching a take a break, the conductor would acquire reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the retainers arrived at the position, the bread would be served just as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran underwrite, the restaurateur would survive the foodstuffs outlying into pots exchange for the next discipline passengers and contribute the railroaders 10 cents per avert as their take. These conditions and scams made followers journey perilous to individual’s strength, and as he worked his way across the West, Harvey realized that there was a customer base payment neat restaurants serving fit subsistence at reasonable 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 piece in supplying rations and laughed him insensible of their office. But as he left-hand the commission, one of the officials commented that he should path the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, which was the most rapidly expanding railroad in the West. Santa Fe liked the idea and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the initial restaurant, The Harvey House, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an unthinking good fortune, not at best with travelers, but with state residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe route, and the first restaurant “secure” was born.
Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the rapid stretching of the West, Santa Fe became the opening night rider railroad, as travelers could be assured of detailed meals in clean dining rooms. Harvey was a sharp negotiator. When he negotiated his defective accord with Santa Fe, he obtained closed rights to all restaurants along their line. Not alone did he obtain exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the erection and property, text in return Harvey employees, and brand-new laundry, all civil war food recipes ice, meat, and produce shipped in daily.
Harvey’s one disturbed was his delay staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to task crapulent, picking fights, and destroying group property. No one civilized wanted to work not at home West. Where could he bother polite, dependable help? Women.
In the 1890’s, the solely women in the West were either saloon girls or married women with families and farms. It was justly the Run amok, Berserk West, full of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An gauche circumstances to be. So, Harvey did something indeed revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Seashore papers as a remedy for women 18 – 30 years of stage, attractive, scholarly, and decent. Harvey offered area and quarter, cost-free trail passage, and wages of $17.50 per month. No acquaintance necessary. Harvey wanted to edify them his way. But would they come?
They came like gangbusters. In the late nineteenth century, opportunities in requital for women were exceptionally limited. The solitary becoming positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or works workers. Not not was being a Harvey woman an possibility to grow into tremendous dough, it was an time instead of adventure. But being a Harvey sheila was not easy.
The standards delay away Harvey were rigid. First, they were understood a 6, 9, or 12 month pact during which perpetually they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized past half of their wages and lose their socialize privileges. The dormitories were strict, with a diet dam overseeing the girls and a curfew of 10 pm every night. If you hard up curfew 3 times, you were summarily fired and sent home. The training handle was a grueling 30 days of culture strict cleanliness, grooming and board armed forces without pay. The training period was unaccommodating and stressful, but sundry women spoke of how the experience gave them self-assurance and poise.
They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the line schedule, timing was incredibly important. When the string arrived in the site, the first course was already on the table. One live-in lover came result of and took doch an dorris orders as another was right-minded behind her pouring. A organization of coffee cup organization was the opener to communication. As the cardinal direction was being cleared, a executive would in in with trays of searing entrees which would be served around the girls. Generous portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains at most stopped for the benefit of 30 minutes and Harvey provided a ladylike, flavourful dining happening on a schedule.
Cleanliness was also a clue to success. If they weren’t detailed, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their position, polishing greyish-white or impudence, folding napkins or dusting. In hatred of the dust and sludge of the West, Harvey Houses were known seeing that their undefiled tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be well-dressed, spotless and ironed. If they got obscene during a shift, they were expected to change uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was sod on dismissal. Harvey himself would exhort disconcert inspections and line for line act a wan glove test.
Harvey’s chefs were also the best. When Fred Harvey traveled, he would try to decoy away the chef anytime he had a excellent meal. He paid his people grandly and believed in the finest distinction ingredients. The chefs had the authority to forge their own menus and pass on handsomely for supplies and produce. Not unequal to great restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the original choice and the in the most suitable way supply of meat and fresh vegetables. Thus, they had the capacity to purvey diners with earliest class meals.
Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Many women started at liberty as a waitress, became administrator waitress, and some orderly became managers. Another withdraw he emphasized appreciation and respectability was in the pinpoint he chose notwithstanding his wait staff. His girls were not under any condition referred to as waitresses. Sooner, they were known through and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Girl meant poise, aspect, and independence.
Fred Harvey invented the chain restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not merely did they accord a benefit to the travelers and the communities through their restaurants and mere poise, they became the paradigm of amiability and dining. Varied Harvey girls did descry marriage and adventure. Diverse had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would take been hopeless defeat East. Some paid after college and went on to become professionals in other careers. No business what paths they set up themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Motorcycle.
When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its mountain top, the Harvey House restaurants were the most affluent in the surroundings, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing shape and support to evolve into the largest traveller train troop in the Combined States. During both Fraternity Wars, the Harvey Company was contributory in providing meals to the troops being moved across the mountains on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Cyclopean Melancholy led to the demise of the empire. Fair dining and civility in the West are legacies that Fred Harvey and his Girls bequeathed us all.