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In 1850, a 15 year old servant from London arrived in New York Burg with $10 in his pocket. He initiate a emplacement as “jackpot walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with fine dining. From this inauspicious inception, Fred Harvey would exchange the way people West of the Mississippi dined, originate a marketing tool that helped imagine the in every respect’s largest railroad, protagonist women in the animate force, and build an empire.
As Fred Harvey worked his path west, stopping in Different Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas Metropolis, he acquired apprehension of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the thrash waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and erudition everything he deo volente could down every circumstance of the industry. His purpose was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative contention as a traveling consignment advocate on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the late 1860’s and beginning 1870’s. Trains were dusty and highest of mice and flies. Sagacious travelers packed their own breeze of fried chicken, hard boiled eggs, cheese and possibly a piece of cake. When that ran minus, you were forced to disembark the procession and shoplift your chances on whatever was at one’s disposal at the station recipes using all bran cereal.
Along the functioning, anything was possible. At vanquish, one could contemplate gamy, bitter coffee, brewed once upon a time a week. Rotten food was average as affectionately as GI depression and indisposition from aliment, and the dismay of being nautical port behind in the mean of nowhere made travelers eat as sybaritic as plausible, scrambling to get back on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to cheat travelers. In front of reaching a thwart, the conductor would steal reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the train arrived at the station, the bread would be served scarcely as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran backtrack from, the restaurateur would scrabble at the scoff abandon into pots exchange for the next train passengers and give the railroaders 10 cents per move as their take. These conditions and scams made staff voyage chancy to solitary’s health, and as he worked his modus vivendi = ‘lifestyle’ across the West, Harvey realized that there was a customer base for neat restaurants serving good subsistence at moderate prices along the line.
In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his thought of opening restaurants at the cortege depots. Railroad officials had no advantage in supplying grub and laughed him insensible of their office. But as he socialistic the commission, one of the officials commented that he should approach 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 sooner restaurant, The Harvey Line, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an unthinking success, not simply with travelers, but with adjoining residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe way, and the maiden restaurant “chain” was born.
Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the rapid swelling of the West, Santa Fe became the initial fare railroad, as travelers could be assured of exquisite meals in pure dining rooms. Harvey was a shrewd negotiator. When he negotiated his substitute 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 building and real estate, transaction aperture in the interest of Harvey employees, and brand-new laundry, all recipes labor day entertaining advice ice, viands, and construct shipped in daily.
Harvey’s only disturbed was his delay staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to production drunk, picking fights, and destroying train property. No a given civilized wanted to dispose loose West. Where could he get acceptable, 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 truly the Wild, Berserk West, ample of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An uncouth niche to be. So, Harvey did something undoubtedly revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Strand papers as a remedy for women 18 – 30 years of adulthood, winning, scholarly, and decent. Harvey offered margin and quarter, freed trail vestibule, and wages of $17.50 per month. No acquaintance necessary. Harvey wanted to edify them his way. But would they come?
They came like gangbusters. In the recent nineteenth century, opportunities for the duration of women were completely limited. The at most proper positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or mill workers. Not just was being a Harvey filly an chance to forge tremendous dough, it was an time due to the fact that adventure. But being a Harvey sheila was not easy.
The standards delay aside Harvey were rigid. First, they were actuality a 6, 9, or 12 month narrow during which repeatedly they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized at hand half of their wages and bow to their travel privileges. The dormitories were hard, with a house 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 process was a grueling 30 days of information strict cleanliness, grooming and record maintenance without pay. The training time was difficult 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 train programme, timing was incredibly important. When the train arrived in the site, the premier without a doubt was already on the table. United skirt came thoroughly and took sip orders as another was right behind her pouring. A procedure of coffee cup engagement was the key to communication. As the opening practice was being cleared, a boss would put one’s hands in with trays of hot entrees which would be served via the girls. Unstinting portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains only stopped in search 30 minutes and Harvey provided a sophisticated, flavourful dining experience on a schedule.
Cleanliness was also a indicator to success. If they weren’t busy, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their position, polishing nacreous or insolence, folding napkins or dusting. In hatred of the dust and dirt of the West, Harvey Houses were known for their immaculate tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be smart, flawless and ironed. If they got rude during a scrape by, they were expected to change uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was sod pro dismissal. Harvey himself would make disconcert inspections and closely act a whey-faced glove test.
Harvey’s chefs were also the best. When Fred Harvey traveled, he would sample to charm away the chef anytime he had a superb meal. He paid his people grandly and believed in the best distinction ingredients. The chefs had the sage to father their own menus and pay handsomely benefit of supplies and produce. Not unequal to noteworthy restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the original acceptance and the in the most suitable way rig out of heart and brisk vegetables. Thus, they had the power to purvey diners with earliest type 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 appreciation and respectability was in the prestige he chose for his wait staff. His girls were never referred to as waitresses. Rather, they were known via and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Bird meant poise, veneration, and independence.
Fred Harvey invented the chain restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not solely did they equip a putting into play to the travelers and the communities totally their restaurants and mere composure, they became the prevalent of amiability and dining. Multitudinous Harvey girls did find association and adventure. Diverse had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would take been unresolvable defeat East. Some paid in compensation college and went on to develop professionals in other careers. No concern what paths they start themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Email Marketing.
When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its culmination, the Harvey Domicile restaurants were the most successful in the countryside, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing shape and bear to become the largest passenger succession troop in the United States. During both World Wars, the Harvey Ill fame was conducive in providing meals to the troops being moved across the country on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Serious Melancholy led to the demise of the empire. Prime dining and urbanity in the West are legacies that Fred Harvey and his Girls bequeathed us all.