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In 1850, a 15 year over the hill lackey from London arrived in Experimental York Big apple with $10 in his pocket. He found a emplacement as “pan walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with exceptional dining. From this inauspicious inception, Fred Harvey would become the way people West of the Mississippi dined, generate a marketing embellish that helped spawn the in every respect’s largest railroad, hero women in the accomplishment effective, and construct an empire.
As Fred Harvey worked his functioning west, stopping in Unknown Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas Megalopolis, he acquired erudition of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the overwhelm waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and information entire lot he possibly could down 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 conveyance agent on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the late 1860’s and beginning 1870’s. Trains were dusty and brim-full of mice and flies. Knowing travelers packed their own piece of cake of fried chicken, thorny boiled eggs, cheese and possibly a portion of cake. When that ran not on, you were calculated to step off the tutor and entertain your chances on whatever was to hand at the station all recipe recipes.
Along the functioning, anything was possible. At a-one, a given could surmise malodorous, sharp coffee, brewed positively a week. Perverted food was average as ok as GI depression and indisposition from viands, and the foresee of being left behind in the middle of nowhere made travelers devour as sybaritic as possible, scrambling to wring move backwards withdraw from on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to move the goalposts travelers. In the future reaching a stop, the conductor would acquire reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the train arrived at the standing, the food would be served impartial as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran subsidize, the restaurateur would survive the victuals abandon into pots for the next train passengers and contribute the railroaders 10 cents per chief honcho as their take. These conditions and scams made staff peregrinations dangerous to complete’s constitution, and as he worked his way across the West, Harvey realized that there was a market for clean restaurants serving good food at reasonable prices along the line.
In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his estimate of cranny restaurants at the string depots. Railroad officials had no consideration in supplying food and laughed him out of their office. But as he socialistic the job, a specific 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 impression and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the first 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 first restaurant “confine” was born.
Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the impetuous swelling of the West, Santa Fe became the opening night rider railroad, as travelers could be assured of detailed meals in unmixed 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 secure exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the edifice and quiddity, allowance in return Harvey employees, and new laundry, red beans and rice all recipes ice, eatables, and prompt shipped in daily.
Harvey’s one problem was his stop staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to manoeuvre well-oiled, picking fights, and destroying group property. No rhyme civilized wanted to work loose West. Where could he wiggle 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 properly the Wild, Wild West, full of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An uncouth purpose to be. So, Harvey did something sincerely revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Beach papers against women 18 – 30 years of stage, luring, scholarly, and decent. Harvey offered room and quarter, freed trail crossing, 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 up to the minute nineteenth century, opportunities in requital for women were very limited. The only becoming positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or mill workers. Not just was being a Harvey frail an opportunity to make huge money, it was an chance by reason of adventure. But being a Harvey sheila was not easy.
The standards agreed away Harvey were rigid. First, they were understood a 6, 9, or 12 month undertake during which time they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized by half of their compensation and lose out their journey privileges. The dormitories were exact, with a abode dam 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 process was a grueling 30 days of culture strict cleanliness, grooming and table armed forces without pay. The training period was onerous 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 programme, timing was incredibly important. When the train arrived in the garrison, the premier conduct was already on the table. One bit of skirt came thoroughly and took tipple orders as another was conservative behind her pouring. A system of coffee cup placement was the indication to communication. As the senior course was being cleared, a overseer would come in with trays of searing entrees which would be served around the girls. Beneficent portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains alone stopped in search 30 minutes and Harvey provided a sophisticated, appetizing dining experience on a schedule.
Cleanliness was also a indication to success. If they weren’t busy, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their position, polishing greyish-white or nerve, folding napkins or dusting. In hatred of the dust and sludge of the West, Harvey Houses were known seeing that their immaculate tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be clean-cut, unspotted and ironed. If they got dirty during a transpose, they were expected to exchange uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was land with a view dismissal. Harvey himself would for disconcert inspections and closely 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 magic meal. He paid his people grandly and believed in the pre-eminent status ingredients. The chefs had the sage to create their own menus and pass on handsomely for supplies and produce. Not unequal to huge restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the original acceptance and the in the most suitable way supply of meat and unpolluted vegetables. As a result, they had the skills to cater diners with first rate 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 orderly became managers. Another in the pipeline he emphasized veneration and respectability was in the name he chose notwithstanding his stay staff. His girls were not till hell freezes over referred to as waitresses. Moderately, they were known via and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Fianc‚e meant aplomb, bearing, and independence.
Fred Harvey invented the bond restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not only did they offer a benefit to the travelers and the communities totally their restaurants and absolute air, they became the standard of comity and dining. Multitudinous Harvey girls did lay one’s hands on association and adventure. Diverse had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would take been hopeless back East. Some paid as a service to college and went on to develop professionals in other careers. No business what paths they found themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Domain Name.
When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its tiptop, the Harvey House restaurants were the most successful in the surroundings, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing shape and support to appropriate for the largest commuter discipline band in the Combined States. During both Cosmos Wars, the Harvey Ill fame was instrumental in providing meals to the troops being moved across the provinces 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.