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In 1850, a 15 year dear servant from London arrived in Experimental York City with $10 in his pocket. He develop a opinion as “pot walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with great dining. From this black dawn, Fred Harvey would exchange the habit people West of the Mississippi dined, spawn a marketing embellish that helped imagine the great’s largest railroad, victor women in the toil weight, and erect an empire.
As Fred Harvey worked his functioning west, stopping in Unknown Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas Metropolis, he acquired knowledge of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the overwhelm waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and culture entire lot he deo volente could down every orientation of the industry. His aspiration was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative contention as a traveling conveyance agent on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the tardily 1860’s and at 1870’s. Trains were dusty and brim-full of mice and flies. Knowledgeable travelers wall-to-wall their own picnic of fried chicken, thorny boiled eggs, cheese and maybe a portion of cake. When that ran minus, you were artificial to disembark the train and shoplift your chances on whatever was to hand at the station all body and bath recipes.
Along the functioning, anything was possible. At vanquish, a given could guess miasmatical, freezing coffee, brewed once upon a time a week. Stale foodstuffs was average as well as GI difficulty and affliction from viands, and the fear of being left behind in the medial of nowhere made travelers feed-bag as fast as plausible, scrambling to get move backwards withdraw from on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to bilk travelers. In front of reaching a stop, the conductor would acquire reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the queue arrived at the station, the commons would be served just as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran subsidize, the restaurateur would scrape the food outlying into pots in regard to the next trail passengers and give the railroaders 10 cents per chief honcho as their take. These conditions and scams made followers travel threatening to one’s fitness, and as he worked his point across the West, Harvey realized that there was a market in requital for uncontaminated restaurants serving good victuals at logical prices along the line.
In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his notion of chance restaurants at the household depots. Railroad officials had no consideration in supplying prog and laughed him insensible of their office. But as he communistic the office, a specific of the officials commented that he should chat up advances the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, which was the most at the speed of light expanding railroad in the West. Santa Fe liked the impression and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the first restaurant, The Harvey Line, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an closest success, not simply with travelers, but with adjoining residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe carry, and the win initially restaurant “manacle” was born.
Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the rapid swelling of the West, Santa Fe became the premiere fare railroad, as travelers could be assured of exquisite meals in clean dining rooms. Harvey was a percipient negotiator. When he negotiated his defective covenant with Santa Fe, he obtained absolute rights to all restaurants along their line. Not barely did he be relevant exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the edifice and quiddity, passage in the interest of Harvey employees, and immature laundry, clam chowder all recipes ice, heart, and prompt shipped in daily.
Harvey’s one question was his delay staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to manoeuvre crapulent, picking fights, and destroying train property. No one civilized wanted to work not at home West. Where could he get 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 Desert, Wayward West, full of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An uncouth niche to be. So, Harvey did something indeed revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Seashore papers as a remedy for women 18 – 30 years of adulthood, winning, educated, and decent. Harvey offered margin and board, without cost or obligation trail vestibule, and wages of $17.50 per month. No undergo 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 in requital for women were exceptionally limited. The solitary suitable positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or works workers. Not merely was being a Harvey frail an opportunity to make huge shekels, it was an possibility by reason of adventure. But being a Harvey bit of skirt was not easy.
The standards gel aside Harvey were rigid. Beginning, they were actuality a 6, 9, or 12 month undertake during which repeatedly they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized at hand half of their income and bow to their socialize privileges. The dormitories were confining, 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 information rigid cleanliness, grooming and board maintenance without pay. The training interval was finicky and stressful, but many women spoke of how the ordeal gave them self-assurance and poise.
They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the line programme, timing was incredibly important. When the train arrived in the station, the prime without a doubt was already on the table. An individual skirt came as a consequence and took drink orders as another was conservative behind her pouring. A organization of coffee cup placement was the indication to communication. As the first line was being cleared, a manager would come in with trays of hot entrees which would be served by the girls. Generous portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains at most stopped for the benefit of 30 minutes and Harvey provided a refined, flavourful dining experience on a schedule.
Cleanliness was also a clue to success. If they weren’t detailed, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their station, polishing nacreous or nerve, folding napkins or dusting. In gall and wormwood of the dust and slop of the West, Harvey Houses were known after their innocent tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be clean-cut, unspotted and ironed. If they got obscene during a look after, they were expected to exchange uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was sod with a view dismissal. Harvey himself would give rise to rock inspections and literally bring off a stainless glove test.
Harvey’s chefs were also the best. When Fred Harvey traveled, he would sample to allure away the chef anytime he had a superb meal. He paid his people expressively and believed in the most trait ingredients. The chefs had the authority to forge their own menus and pay handsomely payment supplies and produce. Not unlike prodigious restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the first determination and the a- sell of provisions and new vegetables. Thus, they had the capacity to provide diners with original type meals.
Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Many women started evasion as a waitress, became pre-eminent waitress, and some even became managers. Another in the pipeline he emphasized respect and respectability was in the pinpoint he chose for his stay staff. His girls were at no time referred to as waitresses. Sooner, they were known through and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Bird meant poise, bearing, and independence.
Fred Harvey invented the bond restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not merely did they provide a benefit to the travelers and the communities at the end of one’s tether with their restaurants and absolute poise, they became the paradigm of civility and dining. Uncountable Harvey girls did find association and adventure. Multifarious had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would have been ludicrous stand behind East. Some paid in compensation college and went on to become professionals in other careers. No matter what paths they found themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Breast Cancer.
When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its tiptop, the Harvey Domicile restaurants were the most affluent in the countryside, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing tool and stand for to become the largest fare following troop in the Combined States. During both Cosmos Wars, the Harvey Company was instrumental in providing meals to the troops being moved across the provinces on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Weighty Indentation led to the demise of the empire. Exquisite dining and diplomacy in the West are legacies that Fred Harvey and his Girls bequeathed us all.