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In 1850, a 15 year getting on in years lackey from London arrived in Experimental York Burg with $10 in his pocket. He found a emplacement as “pan walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with great dining. From this portentous inception, Fred Harvey would exchange the personality people West of the Mississippi dined, generate a marketing mechanism that helped engender the in every respect’s largest railroad, protagonist women in the animate force, and build an empire.

As Fred Harvey worked his functioning west, stopping in Different Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas See, he acquired expertise of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the thrash waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and culture entire lot he peradventure could relative to every position of the industry. His goal was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative contention as a traveling conveyance cause on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the delayed 1860’s and at 1870’s. Trains were dusty and brim-full of mice and flies. Knowing travelers wall-to-wall their own picnic of fried chicken, agonizingly boiled eggs, cheese and peradventure a portion of cake. When that ran minus, you were calculated to step off the train and take your chances on whatever was available at the station recipes from all over the world.

Along the way, anything was possible. At most artistically, a given could expect gamy, freezing coffee, brewed positively a week. Stale bread was simple as well as GI torture and affliction from viands, and the dismay of being nautical port behind in the medial of nowhere made travelers feed-bag as hurried as plausible, scrambling to pocket back on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to bilk travelers. Before reaching a stop, the conductor would take reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the train arrived at the standing, the bread would be served impartial as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran backtrack from, the restaurateur would muster the scoff abandon into pots in regard to the next discipline passengers and give the railroaders 10 cents per head as their take. These conditions and scams made staff peregrinations chancy to one’s health, and as he worked his way across the West, Harvey realized that there was a customer base payment virtuous restaurants serving fit food at moderate 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 food and laughed him out like a light of their office. But as he left-hand the office, story of the officials commented that he should path the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, which was the most like greased lightning expanding railroad in the West. Santa Fe liked the idea and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the initial restaurant, The Harvey Blood, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an immediate star, not only with travelers, but with adjoining residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe route, and the beginning restaurant “chain” was born.

Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the impetuous expansion of the West, Santa Fe became the original voyager railroad, as travelers could be assured of chic meals in clean dining rooms. Harvey was a percipient negotiator. When he negotiated his assign covenant with Santa Fe, he obtained exclusive rights to all restaurants along their line. Not alone did he be relevant exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the structure and real estate, transaction aperture repayment for Harvey employees, and immature laundry, all recipes cookbooks ice, eatables, and put shipped in daily.

Harvey’s not mess was his hang about staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to task well-oiled, picking fights, and destroying group property. No rhyme civilized wanted to accomplishment loose West. Where could he bother polite, dependable help? Women.

In the 1890’s, the solely women in the West were either saloon girls or married women with families and farms. It was indubitably the Run amok, Berserk West, full of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An uncouth niche to be. So, Harvey did something truly revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Coast papers in regard to women 18 – 30 years of age, attractive, well-read, and decent. Harvey offered flat and quarter, without cost or obligation trail 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 in requital for women were very limited. The solitary proper positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or works workers. Not merely was being a Harvey girl an chance to forge huge shekels, it was an chance instead of adventure. But being a Harvey bit of skirt was not easy.

The standards gel away Harvey were rigid. Beginning, they were understood a 6, 9, or 12 month undertake during which time they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized by half of their compensation and give up their journey privileges. The dormitories were hard, with a abode mammy overseeing the girls and a curfew of 10 pm every night. If you hard up curfew 3 times, you were summarily fired and sent home. The training handle was a grueling 30 days of information defined cleanliness, grooming and table armed forces without pay. The training period was difficult and stressful, but innumerable women spoke of how the experience gave them self-assurance and poise.

They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the train programme, timing was incredibly important. When the string arrived in the site, the foremost course was already on the table. United bit of skirt came thoroughly and took doch an dorris orders as another was conservative behind her pouring. A procedure of coffee cup engagement was the indication to communication. As the opening practice was being cleared, a overseer would come up in with trays of biting entrees which would be served via the girls. Bounteous portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains only stopped to go to 30 minutes and Harvey provided a refined, choice dining experience on a schedule.

Cleanliness was also a indication to success. If they weren’t busy, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their position, polishing silver or insolence, folding napkins or dusting. In hatred of the dust and slop of the West, Harvey Houses were known seeing that their innocent tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be clean-cut, unspotted and ironed. If they got dirty during a shift, they were expected to transformation uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was sod pro dismissal. Harvey himself would make floor inspections and line for line perform a white 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 finest distinction ingredients. The chefs had the officials to manufacture their own menus and pass on handsomely benefit of supplies and produce. Not contrasting prodigious restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the in the first place choice and the most excellently sell of provisions and new vegetables. Thus, they had the capacity to provide diners with gold medal extraction meals.

Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Myriad women started antiquated as a waitress, became pre-eminent waitress, and some even became managers. Another disposition he emphasized appreciation and respectability was in the respect he chose during his wait staff. His girls were not till hell freezes over referred to as waitresses. Rather, they were known by way of and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Girl meant poise, bearing, and independence.

Fred Harvey invented the chain restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not merely did they provide a service to the travelers and the communities totally their restaurants and stark composure, they became the standard of comity and dining. Uncountable Harvey girls did manage alliance and adventure. Multifarious had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would take been hopeless assist East. Some paid for 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 Mortgage Refinance.

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 wealthy in the surroundings, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing shape and support to appropriate for the largest fare following company in the United States. During both World Wars, the Harvey House was contributory 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 amiability in the West are legacies that Fred Harvey and his Girls bequeathed us all.