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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 rest a position as “jackpot walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with fine dining. From this black dawn, Fred Harvey would exchange the habit people West of the Mississippi dined, generate a marketing mechanism that helped create the world’s largest railroad, hero women in the work effective, and build an empire.
As Fred Harvey worked his habit west, stopping in Different Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas City, he acquired erudition of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the floor waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and culture entire lot he peradventure could relative to every aspect of the industry. His goal 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 delayed 1860’s and at 1870’s. Trains were dusty and unshaded of mice and flies. Knowledgeable travelers filled to the gunwales their own picnic of fried chicken, thorny boiled eggs, cheese and possibly a piece of cake. When that ran minus, you were artificial to land the followers and take your chances on whatever was to hand at the station all recipes rice crispy treats.
Along the way, anything was possible. At a-one, a given could guess gamy, bitter coffee, brewed once a week. Perverted food was run-of-the-mill as well as GI distress and indisposition from food, and the dismay of being left behind in the mesial of nowhere made travelers eat as fast as possible, scrambling to get endorse on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to move the goalposts travelers. In the future reaching a thwart, the conductor would assume reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the train arrived at the standing, the commons would be served scarcely as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran backtrack from, the restaurateur would scrape the foodstuffs back into pots on the next train passengers and forgo the railroaders 10 cents per move as their take. These conditions and scams made train peregrinations chancy to complete’s strength, and as he worked his point across the West, Harvey realized that there was a customer base to save neat restaurants serving commendable chow at rational prices along the line.
In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his thought of chance restaurants at the household depots. Railroad officials had no interest in supplying rations and laughed him unlit of their office. But as he communistic the commission, a specific of the officials commented that he should chat up advances the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, which was the most at a gallop expanding railroad in the West. Santa Fe liked the idea and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the sooner restaurant, The Harvey Line, 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 maiden restaurant “manacle” was born.
Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the impetuous enlargement of the West, Santa Fe became the opening night rider railroad, as travelers could be assured of exquisite meals in clean dining rooms. Harvey was a shrewd negotiator. When he negotiated his defective agreement with Santa Fe, he obtained choice rights to all restaurants along their line. Not alone did he obtain exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the erection and property, text in return Harvey employees, and fresh laundry, recipes all recipes ice, meat, and put shipped in daily.
Harvey’s only problem was his stop staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to work inebriated, picking fights, and destroying group property. No rhyme civilized wanted to work not at home West. Where could he bother acceptable, 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 properly the Uncivilized, Berserk West, blinding of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An gauche niche to be. So, Harvey did something indeed revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Coast papers against women 18 – 30 years of age, interesting, educated, and decent. Harvey offered flat and committee, without cost or obligation carriage passage, and wages of $17.50 per month. No trial necessary. Harvey wanted to string them his way. But would they come?
They came like gangbusters. In the till nineteenth century, opportunities by reason of women were very limited. The only proper positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or plant workers. Not just was being a Harvey woman an chance to earn weighty dough, it was an opportunity due to the fact that adventure. But being a Harvey lass was not easy.
The standards gel by Harvey were rigid. First, 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 at hand half of their salary and lose out their travel privileges. The dormitories were hard, with a strain mum overseeing the girls and a curfew of 10 pm every night. If you ruined curfew 3 times, you were summarily fired and sent home. The training make was a grueling 30 days of learning defined cleanliness, grooming and board maintenance without pay. The training period was unaccommodating and stressful, but innumerable women spoke of how the involvement gave them self-assurance and poise.
They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the teach slate, timing was incredibly important. When the caravan arrived in the station, the premier conduct was already on the table. United live-in lover came thoroughly and took drink orders as another was right-minded behind her pouring. A way of coffee cup placement was the indication to communication. As the opening direction was being cleared, a manager would come in with trays of steaming entrees which would be served close to the girls. Bounteous portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains at most stopped to go to 30 minutes and Harvey provided a ladylike, appetizing 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 passenger station, polishing polished or impudence, folding napkins or dusting. In offend of the dust and offal of the West, Harvey Houses were known for their undefiled tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be clean-cut, flawless and ironed. If they got stained during a shift, they were expected to transformation uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was sod pro dismissal. Harvey himself would for floor inspections and line for line act a white glove test.
Harvey’s chefs were also the best. When Fred Harvey traveled, he would sample to decoy away the chef anytime he had a magic meal. He paid his people expressively and believed in the finest trait ingredients. The chefs had the officials to forge their own menus and pay out handsomely payment supplies and produce. Not contrasting prodigious restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the in the first place acceptance and the in the most suitable way rig out of meat and unpolluted vegetables. As a result, they had the skills to provide diners with original rate meals.
Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Varied women started antiquated as a waitress, became pre-eminent waitress, and some even became managers. Another way he emphasized reverence and respectability was in the name he chose for his stay staff. His girls were at no time referred to as waitresses. Sooner, they were known by way of and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Girl meant coolness, aspect, and independence.
Fred Harvey invented the restraint restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not only did they accord a putting into play to the travelers and the communities at the end of one’s tether with their restaurants and mere air, they became the standard of civility and dining. Uncountable Harvey girls did lay one’s hands on association and adventure. Multifarious had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would obtain been impossible assist East. Some paid for college and went on to develop professionals in other careers. No business what paths they build themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Broadband Internet.
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 successful in the country, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing decorate and stand for to appropriate for the largest traveller succession troop in the Harmonious States. During both World Wars, the Harvey Descendants was contributory in providing meals to the troops being moved across the provinces on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Weighty Melancholy led to the demise of the empire. Fine dining and urbanity in the West are legacies that Fred Harvey and his Girls bequeathed us all.