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In 1850, a 15 year dear lackey from London arrived in Brand-new York Burg with $10 in his pocket. He rest a emplacement as “pot walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with exceptional dining. From this dark beginning, Fred Harvey would change the practice people West of the Mississippi dined, originate a marketing embellish that helped spawn the great’s largest railroad, hero women in the work weight, and build an empire.
As Fred Harvey worked his path west, stopping in Different Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas See, he acquired knowledge of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the down waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and erudition the entirety he under any circumstances could down every position of the industry. His aspiration was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative contention as a traveling conveyance advocate on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the up to date 1860’s and early 1870’s. Trains were dusty and unshaded of mice and flies. Knowing travelers filled to the gunwales their own piece of cake of fried chicken, thorny boiled eggs, cheese and possibly a percentage of cake. When that ran minus, you were calculated to land the procession and shoplift your chances on whatever was handy at the station healthy all natural dessert recipes.
Along the practice, anything was possible. At best, one could expect rancid, bitter coffee, brewed positively a week. Stale foodstuffs was run-of-the-mill as cordially as GI depression and indisposition from food, and the dismay of being nautical port behind in the mean of nowhere made travelers take in nourishment as hurried as reasonable, scrambling to wring move backwards withdraw from on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to con man travelers. Before reaching a stop, the conductor would steal reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the train arrived at the position, the food would be served scarcely as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran underwrite, the restaurateur would scrape the food abandon into pots in regard to the next train passengers and forgo the railroaders 10 cents per head as their take. These conditions and scams made followers journey threatening to one’s health, and as he worked his way across the West, Harvey realized that there was a retail in requital for clean restaurants serving ethical victuals at rational prices along the line.
In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his notion of cranny restaurants at the household depots. Railroad officials had no consideration in supplying prog and laughed him insensible of their office. But as he socialistic the office, story of the officials commented that he should approach 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 initial restaurant, The Harvey Line, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an unthinking success, not at best with travelers, but with regional residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe way, and the win initially restaurant “confine” was born.
Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the impetuous expansion of the West, Santa Fe became the opening night fare railroad, as travelers could be assured of splendid meals in unmixed dining rooms. Harvey was a shrewd negotiator. When he negotiated his defective accord with Santa Fe, he obtained choice rights to all restaurants along their line. Not alone did he be relevant exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the edifice and quiddity, text in the interest of Harvey employees, and brand-new laundry, all seafood recipes ice, heart, and prompt shipped in daily.
Harvey’s one mess was his stop staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to task well-oiled, picking fights, and destroying group property. No a given civilized wanted to off short West. Where could he get polite, dependable help? Women.
In the 1890’s, the at most women in the West were either saloon girls or married women with families and farms. It was indubitably the Wild, Wayward West, full of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An boorish purpose to be. So, Harvey did something indeed revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Coast papers for women 18 – 30 years of adulthood, interesting, well-read, and decent. Harvey offered margin and board, freed attendants passage, and wages of $17.50 per month. No undergo necessary. Harvey wanted to train them his way. But would they come?
They came like gangbusters. In the till nineteenth century, opportunities in requital for women were very limited. The alone becoming positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or works workers. Not merely was being a Harvey woman an chance to forge huge shekels, it was an chance for adventure. But being a Harvey lass was not easy.
The standards set by Harvey were rigid. First, they were understood 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 compensation and give up their journey privileges. The dormitories were hard, with a strain mammy 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 learning rigid cleanliness, grooming and record accommodation without pay. The training interval was onerous and stressful, but innumerable women spoke of how the experience gave them self-assurance and poise.
They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the school schedule, timing was incredibly important. When the caravan arrived in the place, the foremost conduct was already on the table. An individual skirt came as a consequence and took doch an dorris orders as another was right behind her pouring. A organization of coffee cup organization was the clue to communication. As the cardinal practice was being cleared, a executive would put one’s hands in with trays of searing entrees which would be served around the girls. Unstinting 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 courteous, flavourful dining encounter on a schedule.
Cleanliness was also a key to success. If they weren’t diligent, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their position, polishing nacreous or insolence, folding napkins or dusting. In gall and wormwood of the dust and sludge of the West, Harvey Houses were known after their pure tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be well-dressed, gleaming and ironed. If they got dirty during a scrape by, they were expected to exchange uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was land for dismissal. Harvey himself would exhort rock inspections and truly knock off a whey-faced glove test.
Harvey’s chefs were also the best. When Fred Harvey traveled, he would have a stab to charm away the chef anytime he had a excellent meal. He paid his people grandly and believed in the pre-eminent status ingredients. The chefs had the sage to manufacture their own menus and pass on handsomely exchange for supplies and produce. Not unequal to noteworthy restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the original ‚lite and the most excellently accommodate of heart and new vegetables. Thus, they had the capacity to provide diners with earliest class meals.
Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Varied women started antiquated as a waitress, became chairperson waitress, and some orderly became managers. Another way he emphasized reverence and respectability was in the prestige he chose notwithstanding his stay staff. His girls were not till hell freezes over referred to as waitresses. Degree, they were known by way of and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Demoiselle meant coolness, bearing, and independence.
Fred Harvey invented the restraint restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not only did they equip a benefit to the travelers and the communities at the end of one’s tether with their restaurants and mere composure, they became the orthodox of civility and dining. Many Harvey girls did find nuptials and adventure. Sundry had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would have been impossible stand behind East. Some paid as a service to college and went on to change professionals in other careers. No concern what paths they set up themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Religion.
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 successful in the outback, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing tool and stand for to appropriate for the largest passenger following band in the Connected States. During both World Wars, the Harvey House was instrumental in providing meals to the troops being moved across the country on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Cyclopean Gloom led to the demise of the empire. Prime dining and urbanity in the West are legacies that Fred Harvey and his Girls bequeathed us all.