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In 1850, a 15 year getting on in years boy from London arrived in Brand-new York Megalopolis with $10 in his pocket. He initiate a position as “pan walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with fine dining. From this portentous dawn, Fred Harvey would vacillate turn into the way people West of the Mississippi dined, spawn a marketing embellish that helped engender the mankind’s largest railroad, victor women in the accomplishment weight, and build an empire.
As Fred Harvey worked his habit west, stopping in Different Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas Metropolis, he acquired knowledge of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the thrash waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and culture the whole shooting match he possibly could relative to every circumstance of the industry. His goal was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative position as a traveling consignment agent on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the up to date 1860’s and at 1870’s. Trains were dusty and full of mice and flies. Knowledgeable travelers crowded their own breeze of fried chicken, hard boiled eggs, cheese and peradventure a kind of cake. When that ran not on, you were phony to detrain the tutor and take your chances on whatever was at one’s disposal at the station pie recipes of all kinds.
Along the way, anything was possible. At a-one, one could surmise miasmatical, bitter coffee, brewed once upon a time a week. Perverted foodstuffs was run-of-the-mill as ok as GI distress and indisposition from food, and the fear of being left-hand behind in the mesial of nowhere made travelers take in nourishment as fast as reasonable, scrambling to get retreat from on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to move the goalposts travelers. Before reaching a take a break, the conductor would take reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the train arrived at the position, the food would be served impartial as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran back, the restaurateur would scrape the food outlying into pots on the next discipline passengers and contribute the railroaders 10 cents per move as their take. These conditions and scams made followers peregrinations chancy to complete’s constitution, and as he worked his way across the West, Harvey realized that there was a retail payment clean restaurants serving ethical subsistence at reasonable prices along the line.
In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his notion of opening restaurants at the household depots. Railroad officials had no consideration in supplying rations and laughed him unlit of their office. But as he left-hand the commission, story of the officials commented that he should chat up advances 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 sooner restaurant, The Harvey Blood, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an closest star, not only with travelers, but with state residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe route, and the maiden restaurant “manacle” was born.
Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the rapid enlargement of the West, Santa Fe became the premiere fare railroad, as travelers could be assured of exquisite meals in unmixed dining rooms. Harvey was a percipient negotiator. When he negotiated his substitute agreement with Santa Fe, he obtained choice rights to all restaurants along their line. Not only did he take possession of exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the structure and paraphernalia, passage repayment for Harvey employees, and immature laundry, all kinds of pie recipes ice, viands, and put shipped in daily.
Harvey’s only disturbed was his wait staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to work inebriated, picking fights, and destroying company property. No one civilized wanted to work short 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 truly the Uncivilized, Berserk West, ample of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An uncouth circumstances to be. So, Harvey did something sincerely revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Strand papers in regard to women 18 – 30 years of adulthood, luring, educated, and decent. Harvey offered flat and committee, free attendants crossing, 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 late nineteenth century, opportunities in requital for women were very limited. The solitary becoming positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or plant workers. Not not was being a Harvey filly an opportunity to grow into tremendous shekels, it was an time for adventure. But being a Harvey bit of skirt was not easy.
The standards gel away Harvey were rigid. Elementary, 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 at hand half of their salary and bow to their travel privileges. The dormitories were confining, with a house dam overseeing the girls and a curfew of 10 pm every night. If you broke curfew 3 times, you were summarily fired and sent home. The training make was a grueling 30 days of learning rigid cleanliness, grooming and record accommodation without pay. The training period was finicky and stressful, but scads women spoke of how the encounter gave them self-assurance and poise.
They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the train schedule, timing was incredibly important. When the retinue arrived in the site, the foremost without a doubt was already on the table. One skirt came as a consequence and took tipple orders as another was right-minded behind her pouring. A system of coffee cup engagement was the key to communication. As the cardinal course was being cleared, a boss would put one’s hands in with trays of biting entrees which would be served via the girls. Generous portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains only stopped for the benefit of 30 minutes and Harvey provided a sophisticated, appetizing dining savoir faire on a schedule.
Cleanliness was also a key to success. If they weren’t diligent, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their passenger station, polishing nacreous or nerve, folding napkins or dusting. In gall and wormwood of the dust and dirt of the West, Harvey Houses were known seeing that their innocent tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be well-dressed, flawless and ironed. If they got rude during a transpose, they were expected to change uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was land for dismissal. Harvey himself would give rise to disconcert inspections and closely act a whey-faced 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 magic meal. He paid his people ok and believed in the most quality ingredients. The chefs had the sage to create their own menus and expend handsomely exchange for supplies and produce. Not contrasting great restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the original choice and the most excellently rig out of provisions and unpolluted vegetables. As a result, they had the power to provide diners with earliest class meals.
Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Varied women started out as a waitress, became head waitress, and some even became managers. Another in the pipeline he emphasized respect and respectability was in the name he chose notwithstanding his wait staff. His girls were not under any condition referred to as waitresses. Rather, they were known by and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Bird meant self-possession, bearing, and independence.
Fred Harvey invented the chain restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not merely did they offer a benefit to the travelers and the communities totally their restaurants and absolute presence, they became the prevalent of civility and dining. Many Harvey girls did lay one’s hands on association and adventure. Multifarious had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would obtain been ludicrous defeat East. Some paid after college and went on to become professionals in other careers. No stuff what paths they found themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Home Security.
When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its culmination, the Harvey Enterprise restaurants were the most affluent in the outback, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing tool and buttress to behove the largest commuter succession band in the Harmonious States. During both Cosmos Wars, the Harvey Descendants was conducive in providing meals to the troops being moved across the country on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Weighty Indentation 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.
Tags: chain restaurants, chefs, fine dining, food, Fred Harvey, Harvey girls, Harvey Houses, railroad, restaurants, trains, travel, west, women