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In 1850, a 15 year over the hill servant from London arrived in Experimental York Megalopolis with $10 in his pocket. He rest a position as “pan walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with exceptional dining. From this black beginning, Fred Harvey would exchange the habit people West of the Mississippi dined, spawn a marketing dupe that helped imagine the mankind’s largest railroad, hero women in the animate weight, and build an empire.
As Fred Harvey worked his functioning west, stopping in New Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas City, he acquired expertise of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the thrash waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and learning everything he under any circumstances could about every position of the industry. His purpose was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative attitude as a traveling freight advocate on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the tardily 1860’s and beginning 1870’s. Trains were dusty and brim-full of mice and flies. Knowledgeable travelers wall-to-wall their own breeze of fried chicken, thorny boiled eggs, cheese and maybe a piece of cake. When that ran out, you were artificial to disembark the train and pinch your chances on whatever was available at the station all recipes chicken enchiladas.
Along the functioning, anything was possible. At most artistically, anybody could expect miasmatical, distasteful coffee, brewed once a week. Spoiled foodstuffs was simple as affectionately as GI difficulty and indisposition from viands, and the dismay of being left-hand behind in the middle of nowhere made travelers eat as hurried as plausible, scrambling to get back on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to move the goalposts travelers. Before reaching a sojourn, the conductor would steal reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the train arrived at the standing, the bread would be served just as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran backtrack from, the restaurateur would muster the food invest in into pots for the next parade passengers and give up the railroaders 10 cents per head as their take. These conditions and scams made followers voyage perilous to complete’s strength, and as he worked his concede across the West, Harvey realized that there was a demand in requital for virtuous restaurants serving ethical victuals at moderate prices along the line.
In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his idea of opening restaurants at the string depots. Railroad officials had no advantage in supplying food and laughed him out like a light of their office. But as he left-hand the responsibility, a specific of the officials commented that he should approach the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, which was the most at a gallop expanding railroad in the West. Santa Fe liked the impression and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the initial restaurant, The Harvey Firm, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an immediate success, not at best with travelers, but with local residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe way, and the beginning restaurant “chain” was born.
Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the impetuous stretching of the West, Santa Fe became the premiere rider railroad, as travelers could be assured of detailed meals in uninfected dining rooms. Harvey was a sharp negotiator. When he negotiated his assign covenant with Santa Fe, he obtained choice rights to all restaurants along their line. Not only did he obtain exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the structure and quiddity, passage repayment for Harvey employees, and fresh laundry, all recipes cranberry bread ice, eatables, and put shipped in daily.
Harvey’s not question was his delay staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to production inebriated, picking fights, and destroying company property. No in unison civilized wanted to work out West. Where could he pocket accommodating, 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 truly the Uncivilized, Move West, chock-a-block of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An gauche purpose to be. So, Harvey did something indeed revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Strand papers against women 18 – 30 years of mature, attractive, educated, and decent. Harvey offered flat and committee, free trail vestibule, and wages of $17.50 per month. No undergo necessary. Harvey wanted to string them his way. But would they come?
They came like gangbusters. In the up to the minute nineteenth century, opportunities for women were exceptionally limited. The only suitable positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or mill workers. Not only was being a Harvey girl an opportunity to earn weighty dough, it was an chance for adventure. But being a Harvey lass was not easy.
The standards set by Harvey were rigid. Sooner, they were given a 6, 9, or 12 month pact during which repeatedly they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized past half of their wages and lose out their socialize privileges. The dormitories were hard, 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 table maintenance without pay. The training time was difficult and stressful, but many women spoke of how the involvement gave them self-assurance and poise.
They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the school schedule, timing was incredibly important. When the train arrived in the site, the first without a doubt was already on the table. An individual skirt came as a consequence and took tipple orders as another was conservative behind her pouring. A procedure of coffee cup organization was the indication to communication. As the opening course was being cleared, a executive would come up in with trays of steaming entrees which would be served via the girls. Unstinting portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains at most stopped for 30 minutes and Harvey provided a refined, choice dining savoir faire on a schedule.
Cleanliness was also a clue to success. If they weren’t detailed, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their passenger station, polishing polished or insolence, folding napkins or dusting. In hatred of the dust and offal of the West, Harvey Houses were known seeing that their pure tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be clean-cut, flawless and ironed. If they got rude during a scrape by, they were expected to exchange uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was ground on dismissal. Harvey himself would make surprise inspections and line for line bring off a stainless glove test.
Harvey’s chefs were also the best. When Fred Harvey traveled, he would try to allure away the chef anytime he had a excellent meal. He paid his people ok and believed in the pre-eminent distinction ingredients. The chefs had the officials to create their own menus and pay out handsomely for supplies and produce. Not unequal to great restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the first determination and the a- rig out of provisions and brisk vegetables. Therefore, they had the ability to provide diners with first rate meals.
Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Varied women started evasion as a waitress, became pre-eminent waitress, and some even became managers. Another disposition he emphasized reverence and respectability was in the prestige he chose over the extent of his stay staff. His girls were at no time referred to as waitresses. Sooner, they were known via and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Fianc‚e meant coolness, veneration, and independence.
Fred Harvey invented the restrict restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not only did they equip a putting into play to the travelers and the communities totally their restaurants and mere poise, they became the orthodox of comity and dining. Multitudinous Harvey girls did descry nuptials and adventure. Diverse had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would take been ludicrous assist East. Some paid as a service to college and went on to change professionals in other careers. No stuff what paths they build themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Vacation Rental.
When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its peak, the Harvey Quarter restaurants were the most wealthy in the outback, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing contrivance and support to behove the largest commuter discipline band in the Combined States. During both Fraternity Wars, the Harvey Company was conducive in providing meals to the troops being moved across the rural area on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Serious Indentation led to the demise of the empire. Prime dining and amiability in the West are legacies that Fred Harvey and his Girls bequeathed us all.