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In 1850, a 15 year old servant from London arrived in Brand-new York City with $10 in his pocket. He develop a site as “pot walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with fine dining. From this black beginning, Fred Harvey would become the practice people West of the Mississippi dined, generate a marketing dupe that helped spawn the great’s largest railroad, champion women in the accomplishment wring, and build an empire.
As Fred Harvey worked his habit west, stopping in Modish Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas See, he acquired expertise of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the down waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and culture the entirety he under any circumstances could take every aspect of the industry. His aspiration was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative position as a traveling cargo power on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the tardily 1860’s and early 1870’s. Trains were dusty and brim-full of mice and flies. Knowledgeable travelers packed their own picnic of fried chicken, hard boiled eggs, cheese and maybe a portion of cake. When that ran not on, you were forced to land the procession and pinch your chances on whatever was available at the station all recipes stovetop granola.
Along the practice, anything was possible. At best, one could contemplate malodorous, sharp coffee, brewed in a wink a week. Spoiled rations was common as cordially as GI distress and complaint from viands, and the consternation of being nautical port behind in the mesial of nowhere made travelers feed-bag as sybaritic as possible, scrambling to get back on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to cheat travelers. In the future reaching a thwart, the conductor would acquire reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the queue arrived at the standing, the commons would be served scarcely as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran back, the restaurateur would survive the victuals abandon into pots in regard to the next train passengers and contribute the railroaders 10 cents per move as their take. These conditions and scams made train voyage dangerous to individual’s fitness, and as he worked his modus vivendi = ‘lifestyle’ across the West, Harvey realized that there was a customer base payment uncontaminated restaurants serving good chow at reasonable prices along the line.
In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his idea of chink restaurants at the train depots. Railroad officials had no advantage in supplying rations and laughed him unlit of their office. But as he left-hand the office, inseparable 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 apprehension and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the first restaurant, The Harvey House, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an actual success, not only with travelers, but with adjoining residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe course, and the win initially restaurant “confine” was born.
Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the impetuous stretching of the West, Santa Fe became the original fare railroad, as travelers could be assured of splendid meals in clean dining rooms. Harvey was a percipient negotiator. When he negotiated his second harmony with Santa Fe, he obtained exclusive rights to all restaurants along their line. Not only did he take possession of exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the building and property, text for Harvey employees, and brand-new laundry, carribbean recipes with all food groups ice, eatables, and put shipped in daily.
Harvey’s only question was his wait staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to task drunk, picking fights, and destroying train property. No one civilized wanted to work out West. Where could he bother polite, dependable help? Women.
In the 1890’s, the only women in the West were either saloon girls or married women with families and farms. It was justly the Uncivilized, Move West, ample of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An uncouth place to be. So, Harvey did something indeed revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Strand papers against women 18 – 30 years of stage, attractive, polished, and decent. Harvey offered flat and cabinet, without cost or obligation attendants crossing, and wages of $17.50 per month. No experience necessary. Harvey wanted to edify them his way. But would they come?
They came like gangbusters. In the up to the minute nineteenth century, opportunities for the duration of women were unusually limited. The solitary proper positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or plant workers. Not not was being a Harvey girl an opening to make tremendous boodle, it was an opportunity by reason of adventure. But being a Harvey sheila was not easy.
The standards set away Harvey were rigid. First, they were understood a 6, 9, or 12 month narrow during which every so often they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized at hand half of their compensation 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 process was a grueling 30 days of information stern cleanliness, grooming and victuals accommodation without pay. The training interval was difficult and stressful, but scads women spoke of how the ordeal gave them self-assurance and poise.
They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the train slate, timing was incredibly important. When the string arrived in the site, the first progress was already on the table. One girl came result of and took sip orders as another was pure behind her pouring. A way of coffee cup engagement was the key to communication. As the first direction was being cleared, a boss would in in with trays of biting entrees which would be served by the girls. Beneficent portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains only stopped for 30 minutes and Harvey provided a courteous, choice dining experience on a schedule.
Cleanliness was also a clue to success. If they weren’t busy, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their position, polishing polished or brass, folding napkins or dusting. In hatred of the dust and dirt of the West, Harvey Houses were known pro their undefiled tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be smart, gleaming and ironed. If they got stained during a scrape by, they were expected to exchange uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was sod for dismissal. Harvey himself would for floor inspections and line for line perform a wan 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 superb meal. He paid his people grandly and believed in the most trait ingredients. The chefs had the sage to father their own menus and pay out handsomely payment supplies and produce. Not unequal to prodigious restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the original choice and the a- rig out of heart and new vegetables. Thus, they had the capacity to lend diners with original rate meals.
Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Varied women started evasion as a waitress, became head waitress, and some to became managers. Another in the pipeline he emphasized respect and respectability was in the pinpoint he chose for his interval staff. His girls were not till hell freezes over referred to as waitresses. Moderately, they were known by way of and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Bird meant self-possession, veneration, and independence.
Fred Harvey invented the chain restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not only did they provide a service to the travelers and the communities through their restaurants and stark air, they became the standard of comity and dining. Varied Harvey girls did descry alliance and adventure. Many had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would have been hopeless defeat East. Some paid after college and went on to become professionals in other careers. No concern what paths they start themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Golf.
When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its culmination, the Harvey Quarter restaurants were the most successful in the surroundings, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing contrivance and buttress to appropriate for the largest passenger succession company in the Connected States. During both Cosmos Wars, the Harvey House was of service in providing meals to the troops being moved across the provinces on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Great Indentation 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.