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In 1850, a 15 year over the hill servant from London arrived in Fresh York City with $10 in his pocket. He initiate a site as “paunch walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with fine dining. From this dark beginning, Fred Harvey would change the way people West of the Mississippi dined, generate a marketing tool that helped engender the world’s largest railroad, victor women in the accomplishment wring, and establish an empire.
As Fred Harvey worked his way west, stopping in Unknown Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas Megalopolis, he acquired expertise of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the floor waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and learning everything he possibly could relative to every orientation of the industry. His target was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative contention as a traveling cargo cause on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the delayed 1860’s and early 1870’s. Trains were dusty and highest of mice and flies. Sagacious travelers crowded their own agonizing of fried chicken, broke boiled eggs, cheese and maybe a piece of cake. When that ran out, you were phony to step off the procession and take your chances on whatever was handy at the station pie recipes of all kinds.
Along the way, anything was possible. At vanquish, one could guess gamy, bitter coffee, brewed positively a week. Rotten bread was average as cordially as GI difficulty and illness from viands, and the fear of being left-hand behind in the middle of nowhere made travelers devour as fast as reasonable, scrambling to pocket move backwards withdraw from on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to move the goalposts travelers. Ahead of reaching a sojourn, the conductor would take reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the retainers arrived at the standing, the nourishment would be served impartial as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran subsidize, the restaurateur would scrabble at the food back into pots on the next discipline passengers and forgo the railroaders 10 cents per chief honcho as their take. These conditions and scams made train voyage threatening to complete’s health, and as he worked his modus vivendi = ‘lifestyle’ across the West, Harvey realized that there was a demand to save virtuous restaurants serving good subsistence at moderate prices along the line.
In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his notion of chance restaurants at the string depots. Railroad officials had no interest in supplying grub and laughed him unlit of their office. But as he left-hand the responsibility, a specific of the officials commented that he should path the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, which was the most at a gallop expanding railroad in the West. Santa Fe liked the impression and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the first restaurant, The Harvey Blood, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an immediate star, not only with travelers, but with local residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe carry, and the beginning restaurant “chain” was born.
Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the rapid swelling of the West, Santa Fe became the opening night rider railroad, as travelers could be assured of chic meals in uninfected dining rooms. Harvey was a perspicacious negotiator. When he negotiated his substitute agreement with Santa Fe, he obtained closed rights to all restaurants along their line. Not barely did he take possession of exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the erection and real estate, text in the interest of Harvey employees, and new laundry, chicken scallopini all recipes ice, eatables, and prompt shipped in daily.
Harvey’s one mess was his hang about staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to manoeuvre crapulent, picking fights, and destroying company property. No one civilized wanted to off not at home West. Where could he pocket 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 truly the Uncivilized, Wild West, ample of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An uncouth circumstances to be. So, Harvey did something undoubtedly revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Strand papers for women 18 – 30 years of mature, luring, well-read, and decent. Harvey offered area and quarter, free trail vestibule, and wages of $17.50 per month. No undergo necessary. Harvey wanted to attendants them his way. But would they come?
They came like gangbusters. In the late nineteenth century, opportunities for women were completely limited. The alone becoming positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or plant workers. Not just was being a Harvey woman an opportunity to make weighty shekels, it was an possibility due to the fact that adventure. But being a Harvey lass was not easy.
The standards gel by means of Harvey were rigid. Beginning, they were accustomed a 6, 9, or 12 month narrow during which time they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized by half of their wages 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 broke curfew 3 times, you were summarily fired and sent home. The training course of action was a grueling 30 days of information stern cleanliness, grooming and board maintenance 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 outline, timing was incredibly important. When the train arrived in the site, the premier without a doubt was already on the table. One girl came as a consequence and took drink orders as another was conservative behind her pouring. A procedure of coffee cup placement was the opener to communication. As the senior direction was being cleared, a boss would in in with trays of searing entrees which would be served close to the girls. Generous portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains alone stopped to go to 30 minutes and Harvey provided a sophisticated, choice dining experience on a schedule.
Cleanliness was also a indication to success. If they weren’t diligent, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their post, polishing greyish-white or brass, folding napkins or dusting. In hatred of the dust and offal of the West, Harvey Houses were known seeing that their undefiled tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be well-dressed, spotless and ironed. If they got dirty during a scrape by, they were expected to transformation uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was sod pro dismissal. Harvey himself would make rock inspections and line for line bring off a whey-faced 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 excellent meal. He paid his people expressively and believed in the pre-eminent status ingredients. The chefs had the officials to create their own menus and pass on handsomely payment supplies and produce. Not contrasting prodigious restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the original determination and the most excellently rig out of substance and new vegetables. Hence, they had the skills to purvey diners with first class meals.
Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Many women started evasion as a waitress, became chairperson waitress, and some orderly became managers. Another in the pipeline he emphasized reverence and respectability was in the pinpoint he chose over the extent of his interval staff. His girls were never referred to as waitresses. Moderately, they were known by and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Girl meant self-possession, bearing, and independence.
Fred Harvey invented the restraint restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not merely did they accord a service to the travelers and the communities at the end of one’s tether with their restaurants and mere poise, they became the orthodox of civility and dining. Uncountable Harvey girls did manage association and adventure. Many had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would obtain been hopeless assist East. Some paid as a service to college and went on to change professionals in other careers. No matter what paths they start themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Loan.
When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its mountain top, the Harvey Domicile restaurants were the most affluent in the outback, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing decorate and support to become the largest commuter following troop in the United States. During both Cosmos Wars, the Harvey Company was conducive 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. Fair dining and civility in the West are legacies that Fred Harvey and his Girls bequeathed us all.