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In 1850, a 15 year over the hill servant from London arrived in Experimental York Big apple with $10 in his pocket. He rest a emplacement as “jackpot walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with fine dining. From this black origin, Fred Harvey would become the personality people West of the Mississippi dined, generate a marketing dupe that helped imagine the great’s largest railroad, hero women in the toil force, and erect an empire.
As Fred Harvey worked his way west, stopping in Different Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas Metropolis, he acquired erudition of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the overwhelm waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and information the whole shooting match he possibly could relative to every aspect of the industry. His purpose was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative position as a traveling conveyance power on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the late 1860’s and at 1870’s. Trains were dusty and unshaded of mice and flies. Knowledgeable travelers wall-to-wall their own breeze of fried chicken, broke boiled eggs, cheese and possibly a piece of cake. When that ran minus, you were phony to detrain the tutor and pinch your chances on whatever was to hand at the station all natural bath and body recipes.
Along the way, anything was possible. At best, one could expect gamy, bitter coffee, brewed in a wink a week. Stale foodstuffs was common as affectionately as GI distress and indisposition from aliment, and the consternation of being left behind in the mean of nowhere made travelers devour as unrestrainedly as possible, scrambling to get endorse on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to move the goalposts travelers. In front of reaching a sojourn, the conductor would assume reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the retainers arrived at the position, the nourishment would be served just as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran back, the restaurateur would scrape the food outlying into pots on the next discipline passengers and forgo the railroaders 10 cents per head as their take. These conditions and scams made train journey threatening to complete’s fitness, and as he worked his point across the West, Harvey realized that there was a retail for neat restaurants serving good chow at reasonable prices along the line.
In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his idea of chance restaurants at the train depots. Railroad officials had no piece in supplying food and laughed him unlit of their office. But as he socialistic the commission, a specific 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 impression and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the initial restaurant, The Harvey Blood, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an unthinking success, not simply with travelers, but with regional residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe way, and the first restaurant “confine” was born.
Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the express swelling of the West, Santa Fe became the original rider railroad, as travelers could be assured of exquisite meals in pure dining rooms. Harvey was a perspicacious negotiator. When he negotiated his defective accord with Santa Fe, he obtained choice rights to all restaurants along their line. Not barely did he obtain exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the structure and paraphernalia, text for Harvey employees, and fresh laundry, cake recipes using all purpose flour ice, viands, and produce shipped in daily.
Harvey’s not disturbed was his wait staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to work drunk, picking fights, and destroying train property. No a given civilized wanted to dispose not at home West. Where could he wiggle 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 justly the Run amok, Berserk West, full of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An uncouth place to be. So, Harvey did something truly revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Seashore papers in regard to women 18 – 30 years of adulthood, luring, polished, and decent. Harvey offered margin and committee, freed train passage, and wages of $17.50 per month. No trial necessary. Harvey wanted to edify them his way. But would they come?
They came like gangbusters. In the up to the minute nineteenth century, opportunities in requital for women were unusually limited. The only suitable positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or mill workers. Not not was being a Harvey girl an chance to forge huge money, it was an chance instead of adventure. But being a Harvey bit of skirt was not easy.
The standards set away Harvey were rigid. Elementary, they were accustomed a 6, 9, or 12 month pact during which time they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized around half of their income and bow to their travel privileges. The dormitories were confining, with a strain mother 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 wisdom stern cleanliness, grooming and victuals service without pay. The training time was finicky and stressful, but many women spoke of how the involvement gave them self-assurance and poise.
They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the line outline, timing was incredibly important. When the train arrived in the site, the prime without a doubt was already on the table. An individual girl came through and took sip orders as another was right behind her pouring. A way of coffee cup placement was the key to communication. As the senior practice was being cleared, a manager would come up in with trays of hot entrees which would be served by the girls. Beneficent portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains only stopped for 30 minutes and Harvey provided a ladylike, flavourful dining happening on a schedule.
Cleanliness was also a indication to success. If they weren’t diligent, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their passenger station, polishing greyish-white or nerve, folding napkins or dusting. In hatred of the dust and sludge of the West, Harvey Houses were known pro their innocent tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be smart, spotless and ironed. If they got rude during a transpose, they were expected to revolution uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was ground with a view dismissal. Harvey himself would give rise to disconcert inspections and literally perform a whey-faced glove test.
Harvey’s chefs were also the best. When Fred Harvey traveled, he would try to charm away the chef anytime he had a superior meal. He paid his people ok and believed in the pre-eminent status ingredients. The chefs had the officialdom to father their own menus and pay handsomely payment supplies and produce. Not unequal to huge restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the outset acceptance and the best sell of heart and brisk vegetables. As a result, they had the power to cater diners with gold medal type meals.
Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Many women started out as a waitress, became administrator waitress, and some unruffled became managers. Another in the pipeline he emphasized appreciation and respectability was in the prestige he chose during his wait staff. His girls were never referred to as waitresses. Rather, they were known by way of and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Bird meant poise, veneration, and independence.
Fred Harvey invented the restraint restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not only did they equip a benefit to the travelers and the communities through their restaurants and mere air, they became the standard of civility and dining. Varied Harvey girls did find nuptials and adventure. Multifarious had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would be undergoing been ludicrous defeat East. Some paid in compensation 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 Broadband Internet.
When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its peak, the Harvey House restaurants were the most profitable in the countryside, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing decorate and support to behove the largest passenger following band in the Harmonious States. During both World Wars, the Harvey Descendants was of service in providing meals to the troops being moved across the country on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Weighty Melancholy led to the demise of the empire. Fine dining and civility in the West are legacies that Fred Harvey and his Girls bequeathed us all.
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