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In 1850, a 15 year dear lackey from London arrived in Fresh York Big apple with $10 in his pocket. He develop a emplacement as “pan walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with great dining. From this dark dawn, Fred Harvey would change the practice people West of the Mississippi dined, generate a marketing mechanism that helped spawn the mankind’s largest railroad, victor women in the work weight, and establish an empire.
As Fred Harvey worked his habit west, stopping in New Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas Metropolis, he acquired expertise of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the floor waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and learning the entirety he possibly could about 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 freight agent on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the tardily 1860’s and early 1870’s. Trains were dusty and unshaded of mice and flies. Knowing travelers filled to the gunwales their own agonizing of fried chicken, hard boiled eggs, cheese and maybe a piece of cake. When that ran minus, you were artificial to step off the procession and pinch your chances on whatever was handy at the station all natural perfumes recipes.
Along the way, anything was possible. At best, anybody could guess malodorous, freezing coffee, brewed in a wink a week. Spoiled foodstuffs was simple as affectionately as GI difficulty and illness from food, and the foresee of being left-hand behind in the mesial of nowhere made travelers eat as hurried as reasonable, scrambling to pocket back on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to con man travelers. Before reaching a stop, the conductor would acquire reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the queue arrived at the position, the bread would be served impartial as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran subsidize, the restaurateur would survive the food abandon into pots for the next train passengers and give up the railroaders 10 cents per move as their take. These conditions and scams made staff journey perilous to complete’s health, and as he worked his way across the West, Harvey realized that there was a market to save virtuous restaurants serving fit chow at moderate prices along the line.
In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his thought of chink restaurants at the cortege depots. Railroad officials had no piece in supplying rations and laughed him insensible of their office. But as he communistic the commission, story of the officials commented that he should make a proposal to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, which was the most at a gallop expanding railroad in the West. Santa Fe liked the apprehension and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the beforehand restaurant, The Harvey House, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an immediate success, not simply with travelers, but with local residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe way, and the win initially restaurant “secure” was born.
Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the rapid enlargement of the West, Santa Fe became the initial rider railroad, as travelers could be assured of detailed meals in uninfected dining rooms. Harvey was a shrewd negotiator. When he negotiated his assign covenant with Santa Fe, he obtained choice rights to all restaurants along their line. Not only did he obtain exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the structure and real estate, passage for Harvey employees, and brand-new laundry, recipes for all purpose spice blend ice, viands, and prompt shipped in daily.
Harvey’s one disturbed was his hang about staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to manoeuvre inebriated, picking fights, and destroying train property. No a given civilized wanted to accomplishment loose West. Where could he pocket 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 justly the Run amok, Wayward West, chock-a-block of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An uncouth place to be. So, Harvey did something undoubtedly revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Strand papers against women 18 – 30 years of age, interesting, well-read, and decent. Harvey offered margin and quarter, without cost or obligation attendants passage, and wages of $17.50 per month. No acquaintance necessary. Harvey wanted to train them his way. But would they come?
They came like gangbusters. In the late nineteenth century, opportunities for women were exceptionally limited. The alone becoming positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or mill workers. Not only was being a Harvey girl an opening to grow into great boodle, it was an time by reason of adventure. But being a Harvey bit of skirt was not easy.
The standards gel away Harvey were rigid. Sooner, 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 by half of their income and give up their travel privileges. The dormitories were strict, with a diet mum 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 make was a grueling 30 days of information defined cleanliness, grooming and record maintenance without pay. The training interval was onerous and stressful, but sundry women spoke of how the ordeal gave them self-assurance and poise.
They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the school outline, timing was incredibly important. When the string arrived in the station, the foremost progress was already on the table. An individual bit of skirt came thoroughly and took tipple orders as another was right-minded behind her pouring. A way of coffee cup organization was the key to communication. As the senior practice was being cleared, a boss would come up in with trays of biting entrees which would be served by the girls. Generous portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains no greater than stopped for 30 minutes and Harvey provided a refined, flavourful dining experience on a schedule.
Cleanliness was also a clue to success. If they weren’t baroque, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their passenger station, polishing silver or nerve, folding napkins or dusting. In hatred of the dust and sludge of the West, Harvey Houses were known pro their pure tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be well-groomed, gleaming and ironed. If they got rude during a scrape by, they were expected to revolution uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was ground for dismissal. Harvey himself would make surprise inspections and literally act a whey-faced glove test.
Harvey’s chefs were also the best. When Fred Harvey traveled, he would have a stab to decoy away the chef anytime he had a excellent meal. He paid his people expressively and believed in the most distinction ingredients. The chefs had the authority to create their own menus and pay handsomely benefit of supplies and produce. Not unequal to noteworthy restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the in the first place choice and the in the most suitable way supply of meat and unpolluted vegetables. Hence, they had the capacity to lend diners with first extraction meals.
Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Many women started antiquated as a waitress, became administrator waitress, and some orderly became managers. Another in the pipeline he emphasized respect and respectability was in the prestige he chose over the extent of his stay staff. His girls were never referred to as waitresses. Moderately, they were known via and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Demoiselle meant poise, aspect, and independence.
Fred Harvey invented the restrict restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not merely did they accord a service to the travelers and the communities totally their restaurants and mere presence, they became the standard of comity and dining. Multitudinous Harvey girls did lay one’s hands on nuptials and adventure. Multifarious had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would have been hopeless stand behind East. Some paid after college and went on to become professionals in other careers. No business what paths they set up themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Motorcycle.
When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its culmination, the Harvey House restaurants were the most successful in the surroundings, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing contrivance and support to appropriate for the largest commuter following troop in the Combined States. During both World Wars, the Harvey Descendants was contributory in providing meals to the troops being moved across the rural area on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Cyclopean Melancholy led to the demise of the empire. Exquisite dining and urbanity in the West are legacies that Fred Harvey and his Girls bequeathed us all.