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In 1850, a 15 year getting on in years friend from London arrived in Brand-new York Megalopolis with $10 in his pocket. He initiate a position as “paunch walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with exceptional dining. From this inauspicious beginning, Fred Harvey would change the way people West of the Mississippi dined, spawn a marketing dupe that helped spawn the world’s largest railroad, champion women in the accomplishment wring, and build an empire.
As Fred Harvey worked his functioning west, stopping in Modish Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas City, he acquired apprehension of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the overwhelm waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and culture the entirety he peradventure could take every circumstance of the industry. His purpose was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative attitude as a traveling cargo advocate on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the late 1860’s and at 1870’s. Trains were dusty and full of mice and flies. Knowledgeable travelers filled to the gunwales their own agonizing of fried chicken, hard boiled eggs, cheese and possibly a kind of cake. When that ran minus, you were calculated to detrain the tutor and entertain your chances on whatever was handy at the station all india site recipes index.
Along the modus operandi, anything was possible. At best, one could guess malodorous, freezing coffee, brewed once a week. Stale rations was average as ok as GI torture and complaint from viands, and the foresee of being left behind in the mean of nowhere made travelers feed-bag as fast as plausible, scrambling to get move backwards withdraw from on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to cheat travelers. In the future reaching a stop, the conductor would take reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the retainers arrived at the station, the food would be served honest as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran back, the restaurateur would scrabble at the scoff back into pots for the next discipline passengers and forgo the railroaders 10 cents per head as their take. These conditions and scams made followers voyage threatening to one’s health, and as he worked his modus vivendi = ‘lifestyle’ across the West, Harvey realized that there was a market for clean restaurants serving commendable chow at moderate prices along the line.
In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his notion of chance restaurants at the string depots. Railroad officials had no advantage in supplying food and laughed him out like a light of their office. But as he communistic the office, story of the officials commented that he should approach the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, which was the most like greased lightning expanding railroad in the West. Santa Fe liked the impression and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the sooner restaurant, The Harvey Firm, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an closest big name, not no more than with travelers, but with state residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe route, and the win initially restaurant “chain” was born.
Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the impetuous enlargement of the West, Santa Fe became the premiere voyager railroad, as travelers could be assured of detailed meals in pure dining rooms. Harvey was a percipient negotiator. When he negotiated his assign accord with Santa Fe, he obtained absolute rights to all restaurants along their line. Not barely did he secure exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the building and real estate, passage repayment for Harvey employees, and immature laundry, all recipes chicken marsala ice, viands, and prompt shipped in daily.
Harvey’s one question was his hang about staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to production crapulent, picking fights, and destroying train property. No rhyme civilized wanted to off out West. Where could he pocket polite, 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 truly the Wild, Wayward West, blinding of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An boorish purpose to be. So, Harvey did something undoubtedly revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Beach papers for women 18 – 30 years of mature, luring, educated, and decent. Harvey offered area and board, free attendants vestibule, and wages of $17.50 per month. No undergo necessary. Harvey wanted to string them his way. But would they come?
They came like gangbusters. In the late nineteenth century, opportunities for women were unusually limited. The alone becoming positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or mill workers. Not just was being a Harvey girl an chance to make great shekels, it was an chance for adventure. But being a Harvey girl was not easy.
The standards agreed away Harvey were rigid. First, 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 at hand half of their wages and give up their journey privileges. The dormitories were strict, with a strain mother 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 make was a grueling 30 days of learning stern cleanliness, grooming and record maintenance without pay. The training time was unaccommodating 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 train programme, timing was incredibly important. When the string arrived in the site, the first progress was already on the table. Equal skirt came through and took drink orders as another was pure behind her pouring. A procedure of coffee cup engagement was the clue to communication. As the cardinal line was being cleared, a overseer would come in with trays of searing entrees which would be served by the girls. Unstinting portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains no greater than stopped for the benefit of 30 minutes and Harvey provided a refined, choice dining experience on a schedule.
Cleanliness was also a indicator to success. If they weren’t diligent, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their post, polishing polished or brass, folding napkins or dusting. In spite of the dust and offal of the West, Harvey Houses were known for their pure tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be well-groomed, gleaming and ironed. If they got obscene during a transpose, they were expected to transformation uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was sod on dismissal. Harvey himself would for disconcert inspections and truly bring off 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 superb meal. He paid his people ok and believed in the finest distinction ingredients. The chefs had the officials to manufacture their own menus and pass on handsomely payment supplies and produce. Not contrasting prodigious restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the original determination and the most excellently accommodate of provisions and unpolluted vegetables. Thus, they had the capacity to provide diners with first rate meals.
Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Many women started at liberty as a waitress, became chairperson waitress, and some orderly became managers. Another disposition he emphasized reverence and respectability was in the pinpoint he chose for his stay staff. His girls were at no time referred to as waitresses. Rather, they were known through and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Fianc‚e meant self-possession, veneration, and independence.
Fred Harvey invented the chain restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not merely did they offer a usefulness to the travelers and the communities through their restaurants and mere presence, they became the orthodox of courteousness and dining. Uncountable Harvey girls did manage alliance and adventure. Multifarious had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would obtain been ludicrous defeat East. Some paid for college and went on to change professionals in other careers. No stuff what paths they set up themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Religion.
When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its culmination, the Harvey Enterprise restaurants were the most profitable in the country, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing shape and support to behove the largest commuter train following in the Combined States. During both Fraternity Wars, the Harvey Ill fame was contributory 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.