Episode 17: The Fred Harvey Company

The man that created the restaurant chain.

Transcript

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Hey everybody, I'm Shannon, and welcome to the They Hid What Podcast. On this podcast, I explore parts of history that have been kept hidden or swept under the rug. In this week's episode, I will be discussing the Fred Harvey Company. Let's get into it. Fred's Harvey Houses are believed to be the birth of restaurant chains. It streamlined a fast and efficient meal service that was in business for almost 100 years. Frederick Henry Harvey was born in England on June 27, 1835, to English and Scottish parents. The family immigrated from England to the United States in 1853 when Fred was 17 years old. The family ended up in New York City, where Fred took a job with Smith and McNells, a popular restaurant. Owners Henry Smith and T.R. McNell taught Fred the importance of quality service and fresh ingredients. Fred held many titles while employed there, including pot scrubber, busboy, waiter, and line cook. Time moved on and Fred married and had six children. And though he tried out a few different jobs, he felt called to the food industry. While living in St. Louis, Missouri in 1861, Fred and a business partner decided to open a cafe. This was a big leap for the two men, but they were immediately met by the start of the American Civil War. Fred's business partner decided to leave the business and join the Confederacy and is rumored to have taken all of the business's money with him. Fred closed up shop, decided to leave the restaurant industry, and took a job with the growing railroad industry. Fred worked for the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, which was the first railroad to cross Missouri. Fred made his way to the title of freight agent and found himself traveling a lot for the job. In 1865, the Harvey family relocated to Leavenworth, Kansas. During his travels, Fred was put off by the lack of amenities given to travelers. There were no decent places to stay or get a meal before hopping back on the train. Fred had the idea to open up an eating house for these traveling train people. In 1873, Fred Harvey struck a deal with the Kansas Pacific Railroad and opened two eating houses along the rail line, 280 miles apart. With the success of these two establishments, Fred went on to make a deal with Charles Morse, who was the superintendent of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad in 1876. Fred opened eating houses all along the railway, and Charles Morse didn't charge him rent. This deal was sealed by a handshake. Coulter wanted these buildings to highlight the natural landscape and used components found in Native American architecture. Mary Jane Coulter was the designer of the Bright Angel Lodge, Desert View Watchtower, Phantom Ranch, Hoppy House, Hermits Rest and Lookout Studio, all of which are on the Grand Canyon. The Bright Angel Lodge was designed in 1935 and is a registered National Historic Landmark. It was originally a hotel, then became a camp, and is now a lodge with a Harvey House cafe inside. At its peak, there were 84 Harvey houses, and Fred Harvey was being called the Civilizer of the West. These houses were serving Achinson Railway, Topeka Railway, Santa Fe Railway, Gulf of Colorado and Santa Fe Railway, Kansas Pacific Railway, St. Louis San Francisco Railway, and Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis. A Harvey House began as a restaurant. These restaurants were known for their efficiency as they would have to feed anywhere from 60 to 100 people in 20 to 30 minutes. Fred Harvey's company would utilize a telegraph system to notify his restaurants of train arrivals. One method to keep things moving was the cup code. A waiter or waitress would take the customer's drink order, then arrange their cup in a certain way. Almost immediately, another server would appear with the customer's drinks. If a cup was upright in the saucer, the customer wanted coffee. If it was upside down in the saucer, they wanted hot tea. Upside down and tilted against the saucer meant iced tea, and upside down away from the saucer meant milk. Once Harvey houses were up and running, Fred Harvey found himself dissatisfied with male servers, and he introduced female servers in 1883. Fred put ads in the Midwestern and Eastern newspapers, and over time almost 100,000 women signed up to be a Harvey girl. The qualifications of a Harvey girl, as they were known, was that they were unmarried, between 18 and 30 years of age, of good character, and that they sign a one-year employment contract. Harvey girls were given room and board in housing near the restaurants. This was an incredible opportunity for a woman at this time. After graduating high school, Eva took a train from Lamoney, Iowa to Kansas City, Missouri to apply for a job of a Harvey girl. She said, I was 17 years old and I had never been over 50 miles away from home. There were no jobs where I lived. It was the smartest thing I think that I could have done at that time. After Eva was hired, the Harvey Company put her on a train to Vaughan, New Mexico, where she went through a three-month training period. During training, the servers were taught how to walk, talk, how to give the best service, how to load trays, fold napkins, and fix tables. While this was an amazing opportunity for young women to work, it wasn't an opportunity for all women. The Harvey Company hired mostly white women, and any woman of color that was hired was delegated to back of the house jobs, that being laundry cleaning and dishwashing. During World War II, however, this practice did change. African Americans and Native American women were being hired for waitress positions during this time. One woman who was working in Arizona in the 1930s said, I was assigned to train the first Hispanic woman hired by the house manager. She was a wonderful person. The manager knew it, and I knew it. A whole lot of people at the Harvey house knew it. But the railroad men threatened to leave if she stayed and worked. The manager ignored them. She stayed, and that was that. Things changed a little at a time. Lucy Delgadillo Moore, another Harvey girl, said, Harvey picked all the girls from the East, some from Europe, when they got to Santa Fe, New Mexico. There were no more beautiful blonde, tall girls to his specifications. So he met his first Hispanic and Native American girls. During the war, they needed people. They didn't want to hire me. They had to. What was life like as a Harvey girl? Once hired, a Harvey girl would move into a home near the restaurant, and the most superior girl would oversee everyone. The women had a 10 o'clock curfew and had to have a chaperone when a male visitor came over. These women were often the only single women for miles, and this fact became a draw for men. These women were allowed to date with a chaperone, but they were not allowed to marry until they worked for the company for one year. It became a running joke that you went to a Harvey house for a hot meal and a wife. When at work, the Harvey girl had to wear her uniform, a long black dress, no more than eight inches off the floor, a starched white apron, black stockings and shoes, no makeup and no jewelry. Fred Harvey died of intestinal cancer at the age of 65 on February 9, 1901. His sons Ford and Byron took over operations and continued to expand. The Fred Harvey Company didn't stop at eating houses and hotels. They also wanted to boost tourism in the area of their establishments. They opened shops within the hotels and sold a variety of goods. Harvey Company began selling postcards with pictures of the hotels and called it the best way to promote your hotel or restaurant. They also created an Indian department. Native Americans were hired to come to the hotels and demonstrate how they made their rugs, jewelry, and pottery. These crafts were then sold in Harvey's stores. The Harvey boys formed a relationship with these Native American groups and developed merchandise lines for their numerous shops. Photographs would be taken of the natives and printed on brochures to promote tourism in the area. Another venture were the Indian Detours in 1926. Harvey hotel guests would be driven out to excursions to Native American settlements in New Mexico and Arizona and see what their daily life was like. At the time of his death, there were 47 Harvey House restaurants, 15 hotels, and 30 dining cars operating on the Santa Fe Railway. The Harvey Company had to adapt with the times. In the 1930s, travelers wanted dining cars instead of having to leave the train for every meal. So, the Harvey Company created dining cars. When car travel became more popular, houses and restaurants were added to the national park areas, which were popular travel destinations. Zantera acquired the Fred Harvey Company in 1968. Many Harvey houses and hotels are gone, but a few still remain. The El Tovar Hotel at the Grand Canyon was opened in 1905 and is now a National Park Lodge. This hotel was designed by Charles Whittlesley, who was the chief architect for the Atchinson, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway. The hotel was designed to be a cross between a Swiss chalet and a Norwegian villa. It was built from local limestone and Oregon pine and cost$250,000 to construct. It is considered the most elegant hotel west of the Mississippi River. Some famous guests, allegedly, include Theodore Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, author Zane Gray, President Bill Clinton, Sir Paul McCartney, and Oprah Winfrey. The hotel has 78 rooms, none of which are the same in style. Another hotel you can still visit today is the Fray Marcos Hotel in Williams, Arizona. This hotel was built in 1908 and was named after the Spanish missionary Marcos Del Niza, who had explored the southwest. It began with 22 guest rooms, but 21 additional rooms were added in 1925. Now it has a gift shop, offices, and a train depot for the Grand Canyon Railway and Hotel. Since this episode strayed from the norm, my usual send-off sounds wrong. Instead, I encourage you to watch the 1946 movie The Harvey Girls, starring Judy Garland, and reflect on the fact that one man was the birth of the chain restaurant and brand expansion. Until next time,