“Girls Wanted: For Service at the Fred Harvey Houses”
by
Brenna Stewart Dugan, B.A.
A Thesis In HISTORY
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty Of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for The Degree of
MASTERS OF ARTS
Approved Dr. Julie Willett Chairman of the Committee
Dr. Alwyn Barr
Fred Hartmeister Dean of the Graduate School
December, 2008 Texas Tech University, Brenna Stewart Dugan, December 2008
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES iii
CHAPTER
I. INTRODUCTION 1
II. MAINTAINING QUALITY REGARDLESS OF COST 10
III. THE HARVEY GIRL: THE KIND YOU MARRY 31
IV. THE PORTRAIT OF A HARVEY GIRL 51
V. END OF THE LINE 69
BIBLIOGRAPHY 83
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LIST OF FIGURES
1. Photograph of Slaton Harvey House Male Employees. 39
2. Photograph of Slaton Harvey House Employees. 39
3. Photograph of the Slaton Harvey Girls. 43
4. Photograph of the Slaton Harvey House. 45
5. Portrait of a Harvey Girl. 58
6. The second portrait of a Harvey Girl. 61
7. Photograph of the railroad construction, 1912. 73
8. Advertisement selling lots in Slaton. 74
9. Newstand in the Slaton Harvey House. 75
10. Slaton Harvey House Main Room, 2008. 80
11. Slaton Harvey House Bed and Breakfast, 2008. 80
12. Renovated Slaton Harvey House. 82
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
“I never dreamed that anybody would ever be interested in knowing anything about it or
I would have made notes."1
In the 1946 movie The Harvey Girls Judy Garland helped to romanticize the Fred
Harvey Houses and the women who worked there by singing “Atchison, Topeka and the
Santa Fe.” The movie follows a group of women who have signed on to become Harvey
Girls in the Southwestern desert town of Sandrock, Mountain Territory. Their reasons for traveling west are as numerous as the number of girls on the train. As the train nears
Sandrock, Sonora Cassidy declares, “A Harvey Girl is more than a waitress. Wherever there is a Harvey House, civilization is not far behind.” Cassidy‟s simple declaration was the foundation the Harvey House has lived on years after the restaurants closed. Not all of the citizens of Sandrock were happy about the arrival of the Harvey establishment and the changes the house brought with it. The owner and dancers at the local saloon tried their best to close down the restaurant, going as far as stealing the steaks, shooting into the living quarters at night, and turning a snake loose in the girls‟ rooms. Unfortunately for them, the Harvey Girls fought back and restored order to the Harvey House. In the end, true love fell on Judy Garland and she left her job to settle in Sandrock with one of
1 Molly Johnson, interview by author, 22 March 2003, Jenks, Oklahoma, tape recording. 1
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its more noted residents, leaving the impression that romance could always be found by traveling to new places.2
Harvey Girls have been remembered in movies, poems, songs, stories, and countless books. While the idea that adventure brings romance is not new, the idea of the
Harvey Girls and their ability to “civilize” the West has allowed such romanticism to reach a new level. However, the movie is true to point in the fact that the Atchison,
Topeka, and Santa Fe realized the importance and profitability of decent, if not luxurious, accommodations along it route. The movie also depicts people who were clamoring to travel west which led to the settlement of towns, especially in the vicinity of train depots.
This realization led to an agreement between Fred Harvey and the Atchison, Topeka, and
Santa Fe to build and support the restaurants that became known as the Harvey Houses.
Eventually, the Harvey Houses became famous not only for the affordable and appetizing dinners, but for the women who served them, the Harvey Girls, who like in the movie, went west for jobs, adventure, and sometimes romance. Regardless of their reasons,
Harvey Girls just like Judy Garland‟s character, were often called upon to save the day, although admittedly in less dramatic fashion.3
There has been little research on the Harvey Girls‟ experiences and work culture in the 1930s and 1940s. The introduction of the Harvey Houses along the Atchison,
Topeka, and Santa Fe is legendary and dates back to 1876. The book that most influenced this study was Lesley Poling-Kempes‟ The Harvey Girls Women Who Opened the West. As did the books by Juddi Morris‟ The Harvey Girls The Women Who
2 George Sidney, The Harvey Girls, (California: Warner Brothers, 1945), motion picture. 3 Ray Glass, “A Slice of Slaton History: Restoration brings Harvey House back to life.” Lubbock Avalanche Journal, 7 March 2003, Sec. B, p. 2. 2
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Civilized the West and George H. Foster and Peter C. Weiglin‟s book The Harvey House
Cookbook: Memories of Dining Along The Santa Fe Railroad, which examined the women and food that were a part of the Fred Harvey Houses.4 Other books helped with the topics of gender, work culture, and class.5 Up until the twentieth century most wait staff was male. Waitresses could occasionally be found in boarding houses, music halls, and private clubs, but male wait staff was found in the majority of restaurants. By adding women to the workforce, interaction between the workers and the customers changed greatly. 6 Starting in 1883, women were employed to serve the meals to the customers bringing on a new phenomenon in food service worldwide. In the beginning, women were closely supervised, but this began to change in the later years of the restaurant‟s history. Women working, especially in a service industry, should not surprise too many people. Women have worked for years, only it was usually within the confines of the home. Initially, women who worked outside the home had jobs that were most often not considered respectable.7 A job, especially waiting tables, placed women in the company of men, and if not closely monitored, allowed one to believe that this contact could lead to immoral acts.8 With an ingenious management style and attractive waitresses, the
Harvey Houses rode to fame and legend in the American West. Fred Harvey, by moving
4 Lesley Poling-Kempes, The Harvey Girls Women Who Opened The West (New York: Marlowe & Company, 1991); Judi Morris, The Harvey Girls: The Women Who Civilized the West (New York: Walker and Company, 1994); George H. Foster and Peter C. Weiglin, The Harvey House Cookbook: Memories of Dining Along The Santa Fe Railroad (Atlanta: Longstreet Press, 1992). 5 Dorothy Sue Cobble, Dishing It Out: Waitresses and Their Unions in the Twentieth Century (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991); Alice Kessler-Harris, Out To Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982); Christine Stansell, City of Women: Sex and Class in New York, 1789-1860 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1986); 5 Alison Owings, Hey, Waitress! The USA From the Other Side Of The Tray (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002) 6 Cobble, 25. 7 Kessler-Harris, 75. 8 Cobble, 24. 3
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“respectable” women west, shaped millions of lives while achieving legendary success for his company that is still remembered today.
Along with archival material, oral histories provide the basis for much of my research. I began by putting together the questions which would make up the foundation of my project. While the code of conduct had changed by the twentieth century, it is plausible that the reasons women began to work at the Harvey Houses had also begun to change. I wanted to find out more about why the women became Harvey girls. Were the reasons truly about the adventures the west had to offer? Thousands of women traveled west in the service of Fred Harvey, but what were their reasons and why did some of the women remain in the west while others returned to their families? Questions arose around those who continued to live in the west, such as, were they escaping trouble at home or did they find spouses out west and begin families of their own? Obviously the women were paid for their employment. This leads to the question of whether finances were the reason women took jobs as Harvey Girls. Did Harvey Girls keep their pay or did they send it to their families? All of these questions lead to even more questions relating to why the Harvey Houses became legendary and why, after 100 years, the restaurant is still remembered.
I found that Harvey employees gave a much more direct and personal view of the various changes in their work culture, especially when women were added to the wait staff. Maintaining respectability and morality is in part why many have assumed there was such strict supervision of the Harvey Girls. Yet, the oral histories that I conducted reveal that their lives were actually less restricted and controlled than what had been
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reported. The Fred Harvey Company may have found employees they considered to be morally upstanding and loyal and hence a great benefit to its image and success, but the
Harvey Girls shaped much of their work culture. To be sure, the research may be limited by the fact that the former employees were in their 80‟s to 90‟s, but I have found they could still recall crucial facts about their employment. For example, it is legendary that the Harvey Girls often met their future husbands while working at the Harvey House, therefore, the women tend to be able to recall, with great detail, those events in their lives that seem to matter most. Rose Farschon and Molly Johnson, for example, are two women that were Harvey Girls in their youth. As I spoke to Rose and Molly the details of meeting their husbands, over 50 and 60 years ago, were still vivid.9
Personal memories led me into an examination of historic preservation. As the twentieth century came to a close a large number of the Harvey Houses were demolished so new buildings could be constructed. A small number of Harvey Houses survived and have been, or are currently being, restored. The restoration is being done so future generations will not forget an era that has passed, but why is this important? I began to look at the reasons communities saved the buildings and have formed attachments to the buildings something that brought into sharp relief the importance of the Harvey Girls‟ work culture and romantic image. Predominately towns along the Santa Fe Railway began saving the buildings with the local newspapers reporting the progress and capturing some of the memories of the Harvey Girls. As the restoration projects began to
9 Rose Farschon, interview by author, 10 March 2003, Slaton, Texas, tape recording; Molly Johnson, interview by author, 22 March 2003, Jenks, Oklahoma, tape recording. 5
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make progress they were able to get the Harvey Houses designated with historical markers.10
This study begins by examining the rise of Fred Harvey and his Harvey Houses and moves to the contemporary. In 1869 the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway began its movement west following the Santa Fe Trail, but its true claim to fame came after the partnership with Fred Harvey. Both Santa Fe and Fred Harvey had something to prove. The Santa Fe was endeavoring to do its part in fulfilling America‟s destiny to subdue the continent and rush over the land toward the Pacific11 while Fred Harvey was determined to be the best in the restaurant business proving quality was more than a slogan, it was a way of life. Ultimately this research builds on scholarship that has examined the introduction of Harvey Houses in the west. However my research pays particular attention to the Harvey Girl‟s work experiences and how the Harvey Company relied on their image to not only bring Victorian culture to the west, but to attempt to resurrect the company in the face of post-WW II era changes in consumption and travel.
Even after the Harvey Houses close down, I found historic preservation keeps many memories alive and well. Ultimately, I am arguing that the Harvey Girl, much like the movie suggests, was not simply a waitress but an American icon whose image was used to save business and more recently revitalize towns.
More specifically, Chapter One introduces Fred Harvey, the restaurateur, from his birth in London, to his legendary success as the creator of the Harvey House. This
10 Joshua Hull, “Historic Harvey House gets back on track in Slaton,” Lubbock Avalanche Journal, 13 April 2008, Local News, p. 1. 11 Keith L. Bryant, Jr., History of the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe Railway (New York: Macmillan, 1974; reprint Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982), 2 (page citations are to the reprint edition). 6
Texas Tech University, Brenna Stewart Dugan, December 2008 section details Fred Harvey‟s life from his early work in restaurants to his meeting with
Charles F. Morse, the superintendent of the Santa Fe railway that would change his life forever. Creating spectacular restaurants, the Harvey Houses, attempted to introduce
Victorian culture to what was believed to be the wild and adventurous West.
Chapter Two focuses specifically on the Harvey Girls. It can be argued that without the women he hired to work in his restaurants his rise to fame would not be as memorable. The Harvey Girl gave rise to pink-collar jobs, in other words the rise of women into the labor force specifically the service industry.12 Looking at the work culture inside the Harvey House and the distinctiveness of the Harvey Girl in the work force as compared to other working women at the time is the focus of this chapter.
Harvey Girls not only accepted a position with the Harvey Company, but many also remained in the west after their tenure was up. Once a Harvey Girl decided to marry and stay in the west she often became involved in the community further enhancing her iconic image.
Chapter Three traces the changes resulting from two world wars, an economic depression, and the rise of the automobile. All of these factors contributed to the eventual decline of the Harvey system, but with the remaining Harvey Houses the company worked hard to make them enjoyable, striving to offer the same quality of experience as before. The war years were especially hard on the Harvey Houses. Not only did employees go off to war leaving the restaurants shorthanded, but the troop trains were increasing the number of customers the Harvey employees were used to serving
12 Kathleen M. Barry, Femininity in Flight: A History of Flight Attendants ( Durham: Duke University Press, 2007), 8. 7
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each day. However, it was ultimately the creation of highways and the popularity of driving that undermined the Harvey Houses. To combat the decline of service at the
Harvey House and to reinstall the original service standards a Harvey Girl contest was created. The 1940s saw new interest in the Harvey Girls in popular culture. A book and subsequent movie named, The Harvey Girls drew attention to the women that made Fred
Harvey famous and his Victorian ideals that served as the basis of his restaurants.
Chapter Four examines towns‟ contemporary efforts to preserve the Harvey
Houses in their communities. As the restaurants closed in the mid-twentieth century the buildings fell into disrepair. By the end of the century the few Harvey Houses that remained standing were being targeted for demolition. Citizens began looking for ways to save a piece of their past. This chapter specifically details a West Texas railroad town,
Slaton. Slaton was created by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to service four daily northbound and southbound trains between Amarillo, Texas and Sweetwater,
Texas. As Slaton became the largest division point in the Santa Fe system the town established a post office, banks, a newspaper, and school system. Other industries like cotton farming also increased the size of the town by adding a cotton gin and mill, lumber yard, dry goods and grocery stores, which in turn led to population growth and a decreased reliance on the railroad.13
Much like the movie starring Judy Garland, “Fred Harvey evokes a rush of memory, nostalgia for a time in our country when traveling was slower but more stately, when dining along the way was more than an easy-on, easy-off freeway operation.”14
13 Slaton, Texas Official Website, “Slaton, Texas Your Kind of Town,” http://www.slaton.tx.us. 14 “Those were the Days,” Fred Harvey Yesterday and Today, August-September 1976, 4. 8
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“Mr. Harvey‟s work was that of a pioneer. He was the first man in the west to see the advantage of caring well for the railroad travelers and his energy and force of character was demonstrated by his carrying to a successful termination, a venture thought by many to be impossible.”15 Yet social history is defined as “history from below” because it deals with everyday people and their contributions to history rather than the leaders. As
Lesley Poling-Kempes argues the Harvey Girls were a group of unimportant people. Yet, these unimportant women who managed to move west at a time when moving west was not widespread are the ordinary people who came to shape the Southwest. Quoting
Poling-Kempes, “In examining their lives [the Harvey Girls], we examine the origins of our own.”16
15 Robert L. Smith, “Fred Harvey,” Motor Coach Age, August-September 1983, 9. 16 Poling-Kempes, xii. 9
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CHAPTER II
MAINTAINING QUALITY REGARDLESS OF COST
There was little about Harvey to suggest a Roman proconsul bringing the enlightened authority of the Empire to the farthest reaches of Gaul or Asia Minor. Nor, except for a common English ancestry and background, was there much about the mild-mannered man of pots and sauces to suggest the shapers of the British reign who for three abundant centuries gave Britannia dominion over palm and pine. And yet on a scale and to a degree of perfection that has become part of the folklore of the trans-Mississippi West, Harvey imposed a rule culinary benevolence over a region larger than any Roman province and richer than any single British dominion save India.1
One of the greatest partnerships in the food industry began with a handshake between Fred Harvey and Charles F. Morse, superintendent of the Atchison, Topeka, and
Santa Fe Railway. With this handshake an agreement was made that Harvey would open and maintain restaurants along the Santa Fe Line and, in return, Santa Fe guaranteed stops at these restaurants regularly. Predominately, Harvey would service the train passengers; businessmen or vacationing families, but at times local residents would enter his establishments. The locals transplanted from the East tended to have an easier time at the Harvey House while cowboys and miners at times needed to be reminded of the manners expected in a fine restaurant. This agreement would allow each company to become successful. Harvey wanted to own and operate some of the best restaurants in the United States and the railroad wanted to attract more customers to its line.2 When
Fred Harvey built the Harvey House System along the Santa Fe Railway he
1 Lucius Beebe, “Purveyor to the West,” The American Heritage, vol. 28, no. 2, (February 1967), 28. 2 Lesley Poling-Kempes, The Harvey Girls Women Who Opened The West (New York: Marlowe & Company, 1991), 35. 10
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revolutionized restaurants not only west of the Missouri River, but throughout the United
States. Harvey eventually became famous not only for the women he moved west to work in his restaurants, but also for never settling for less than the best in his restaurants.
Harvey‟s slogan “maintaining quality regardless of cost” was more than a slogan; it was a way of life in his company.3 And that way of life, was about bringing and recreating
Victorian food and service that catered to the commercial travelers‟ definition of
“civilization.”
The meaning of “civilization” is filled with controversy and threats to indigenous cultures. Bringing forth “civilization” to the American west often invokes images of the
United States cavalry and violence or the railroad and economic expansion. Yet, Fred
Harvey, who perhaps thought of himself as the “greatest civilizer”, wanted to settle the west not with guns, but with a decent meal in elegant surroundings where “please” and
“thank you” were common courtesies and cleanliness and respectability were expected.4
All were symbols of the Victorian culture that he was so familiar with both in London and the United States.
The nineteenth century brought about changes to the American West. As transportation began to push the American borders west those who populated the area, besides the Indians, who were already there, were mountain men, cowboys, soldiers, farmers, miners, and desperados seemingly all male and all white and certainly from a rougher station in life than Harvey.5 Food epitomized class and culture differences.
3 Script “Contact Men,” box 5, folder 84, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff. 4 Beebe, 28. 5 Elizabeth Jameson and Susan Armitage, ed., Writing the Range: Race, Class, and Culture in the Women’s 11
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While meats like buffalo and antelope were in abundance, fruits and vegetables were a challenge to the western settlers. Cooking took place in campfires or pits causing the meat to be tough, or it might be added into a stew to mingle with other ingredients. Cast- iron kitchen ranges which existed in the east would not be offered in the west until the railroads lowered the freight tariffs. Therefore, before Fred Harvey began serving meals one could not obtain Victorian meals with all of their courses in the American West.
Ultimately, it was Harvey‟s negotiating skills that allowed his kitchens to be stocked with the most modern of equipment and finest foods, and to produce meals that would suit the taste of any businessmen.6
For hundreds of years men have been moving west to gain and expand their region. Europeans began colonizing the west to gain resources in the Americas, and eventually the Americans began the same process of moving west of the Appalachians for larger resources as well.7 For the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF) the dream of going west was greater for no other than Colonel Cyrus K. Holliday, founder of the railway. There were visionaries before Holliday who saw the railroads as a vehicle to greater commerce and communication through westward expansion and settlement, but it was Holliday that planned on reaching the Pacific Ocean first.8 Holliday moved to the
Kansas Territory in 1854 with dreams of beginning a railroad from Kansas to Santa Fe.
There were others who believed as Holliday and were struggling to start railroads in
West (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 3. 6 George H. Foster and Peter C. Weiglin, The Harvey House Cookbook: Memories of Dining Along The Santa Fe Railroad (Atlanta: Longstreet Press, 1992), 1-2. 7 Robert V. Hine and John Mack Faragher, Frontiers: A Short History of the American West (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), 1-2. 8 Keith L. Bryant, Jr., History of the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe Railway (New York: Macmillan, 1974; reprint Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982), 2 (page citations are to the reprint edition). 12
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Kansas as well, knowing they could turn a profit if they were the first to cross the
Southwest. Holliday managed to write a charter for his railroad that charted his course west with the backing of an influential Board of Directors. The move west for the ATSF was not rapid and consistently required fundraising to continue its efforts with many obstacles to overcome, both financial and natural. As the tracks were laid, towns were created in their midst, but rudimentary ones at that. One way or the other the ATSF builders managed to find the money to continue building their railroad. Once the Santa
Fe reached Dodge City in 1872 they were truly in the frontier where all they met were cowboys, Indians, gamblers and prostitutes. The closer they drew to Colorado the more problems were accrued by the crews. All employees of the ATSF began to arm themselves for protection from robbery. Crossing into Colorado was the railroads first big hurdle, with that accomplished they were ready to continue.9 In 1869, the Atchison,
Topeka and Santa Fe reached Santa Fe, New Mexico allowing Holliday the satisfaction of proving to his naysayers his vision had become a reality. Before Holliday passed away in 1900 he was able to see his railroad cross to the Pacific Ocean, fulfilling his dream and much more.10 The movement west was now easier and passenger travel increased. The
ATSF attracted many of those customers by offering low fares, good service, and “Meals by Fred Harvey.”11
Frederick Henry Harvey was born in London, England on June 27, 1835. He would become an American citizen in 1858. Harvey arrived in the United States at the age of fifteen and began working in restaurants in New York, New Orleans, and St.
9 Poling-Kempes, 12-16. 10 Bryant, 63. 11 Poling-Kempes, 28. 13
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Louis. The first job Harvey accepted was in New York as a busboy at the Smith and
McNeill Cafe. That job paid two-dollars-a-week. In New Orleans Harvey put his previous restaurant experience to work and found employment in some of the finest restaurants New Orleans had to offer. Unfortunately, he came down with yellow fever and had trouble maintaining his employment. He then moved to St. Louis. At first,
Harvey worked as a jeweler and a merchant-tailor. These jobs allowed Harvey to raise enough money to open a restaurant.12
The first American “restaurants” were located in taverns and inns where patrons met to discuss politics and literature. In the nineteenth century as travel increased small hotels were built to accommodate the travelers which were predominately male.
Delmonico‟s was the first formal restaurant that opening in 1827 in New York, and at first there were few who knew what to do with such an establishment. Up to this time meals were traditionally ate at home unless one was traveling.13 But times were changing in the United States and with the emergence of business travelers came hotels that now included meals and lodging. The organization of the hotels and restaurants were modeled on those in Europe, therefore, unaccompanied women were not allowed to be patrons and men were employed by the establishments. The industry justified male-only staffs by explaining men were more capable of carrying the trays loaded with dishes and food than their female counterpart.14
12 James David Henderson, “Meals By Fred Harvey” A Phenomenon of The American West (Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1967), 2. 13 Alison Owings, Hey, Waitress! The USA From the Other Side Of The Tray (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002), 9. 14 Dorothy Sue Cobble, Dishing It Out: Waitresses and Their Unions in the Twentieth Century (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991), 18. 14
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Fred Harvey decided in 1857 to open a restaurant with a partner in St. Louis.
The restaurant was doing well until the outbreak of the Civil War. First, due to the war, business declined. Then, there were differences of opinion between Harvey and his partner about the war. Harvey was a supporter of the Union. His partner supported the
Confederacy. Eventually, Harvey‟s partner took what money there was and disappeared.
The restaurant had to be closed.15 By this time Fred Harvey had married and had a family to support. He gave up his restaurant idea, at least for a time, and took a job with the Missouri River Packet Company in St. Joseph, Missouri. This time, Harvey contracted typhoid fever. After he recovered and regained his strength, Harvey took a job at the St. Joe Post Office. Around this time the chief mailing clerk, W.A. Davis, came up with an idea to save time. He decided the mail could be sorted on the train from point to point. On July 26, 1862 Davis‟ idea was put into use and Fred Harvey was one of the men to who worked on the train, sorting mail from St. Joseph to Quincy.16
Eventually, Fred Harvey accepted a job with the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy
Railroad, rising to freight agent. This job allowed Harvey to permanently move his family to Leavenworth, Kansas. While working for the railroad Harvey experienced firsthand the bad food and hotels that were offered along the railway, and he believed he could provide a better alternative. At this time, eating along the railroads was usually done at a person‟s own risk to their health. Most eating establishments, prior to
Harvey‟s, were run by anyone in the area who was trying to make a buck. The food was
15 Foster and Weiglin,15. 16 Robert L. Smith, “Fred Harvey,” Motor Coach Age, August-September 1983, 8. 15
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tough and old, making it all the less appetizing and, at times, poisonous.17 The meal most commonly served was beans, soda biscuits, and coffee. The food was either overcooked or undercooked. Any luxury, such as linen and china, was never a consideration.18 The meal stops were generally open ten to twenty long minutes and the trains would often leave the station before the meal, that had already been purchased, could be served. Many times the meal would be served but within a few minutes the train passengers were called to re-board the train. The food that was left uneaten was then put back into the pan it came from to be served to the next train that rolled through. It later became known that this practice of serving and reserving meals was a scam between the restaurant owners and the railroad employees.19 Railroad employees and the restaurant owners often split profits on the untouched meals, allowing both to make a profit from the passengers. The average price of a meal was fifty cents. The restaurant owner would allow ten cents per customer to be paid to the railroad men.20
Those who did not eat at the meal stops would bring their own lunches with them to eat on the trains. Due to the amount of time spent on the trains the lunches often brought a horrible smell with them. Refrigeration was not an available option to the passengers and the temperature in the train car would get hot causing the food, once fresh from home, to spoil or smell. Even after the lunches were eaten, or disposed of, the smell
17 R.J. “Bart” Barton. “Dining Railway Style,” Journal of the West 31 (January 1992): 31. 18 Carla Kelly, “No More Beans! The Restaurants That Won The West,” American History Illustrated, (October 1981), 42. 19James A. Cox. “How Good Food and Harvey „skirts‟ won the West,” Smithsonian, September 1987, 130. 20 “Harvey Food Helped Build The West,” The Morrell Magazine, May 1946, 4. 16
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often lingered on in the train cars. The smell, in turn, would attract flies that would stay on the train for the rest of the trip.21
Fred Harvey decided to open his own restaurant to upgrade the quality of food service on train routes and cater to the needs of train passengers. To obtain this goal
Harvey continued his employment with the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy as well as taking a part-time job with the newspaper. Harvey also went into partnership with Jeff
Rice to open restaurants along the Kansas Pacific Railroad. Together they opened two restaurants; one in Wallace, Kansas and another in Hugo, Colorado. Due to financial restraints Harvey was unable to quit his job to work in the restaurants. The standards
Harvey wanted and expected in the restaurants were not kept in place. Rice, on the other hand, found the quality of the restaurants to his standards and, since they were profitable, he did not see a reason to change the operation. Their disagreement could not be resolved and the restaurants were closed within a year.22
Still believing he could fix the problems of eating while traveling by train, Fred
Harvey took his ideas to the managers of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy explaining that the railroad line that established good restaurants would be the line that drew more customers. However, the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy did not want to experiment with the food service industry and turned down Fred Harvey‟s suggestion. Harvey did not give up so easily and eventually went to Charles F. Morse at the Santa Fe Railway.
What Harvey did not know was that right before he went to speak with Morse, Santa Fe had a horrible experience with food service when several dignitaries were riding with
21 Bryant, 107. 22 Poling-Kempes, 34. 17
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them. On an excursion trip with senior members of the railroad, legislators, and other officials, the train ran into a blizzard causing the trip to take longer than expected. There was not enough food and the restaurants along the railroad tracks proved to be inferior to what they were used to eating. To save face, Santa Fe decided to allow Fred Harvey to open a restaurant in Topeka, Kansas and, depending on its success or failure, more business deals would be decided in the future. By adding quality food service to the industry Santa Fe leaders would show that they cared about their customers who originally were the single business men or travelers and in the twentieth century patrons from both the lower and middle class. Both men shook hands in agreement and their business partnership began in 1876.23
Harvey began his agreement with ATSF by opening a lunch counter in Topeka,
Kansas. Harvey‟s idea was not only to provide the best restaurant that served the railway, but to create the finest restaurant in the country. First, Harvey bought out an existing restaurant on the second floor of the depot, shut down the restaurant for two days to remodel, then the lunch counter opened with new linen, silverware, and a higher quality of food. Guy Potter was hired to manage the restaurant, maintaining Fred
Harvey‟s standards. The lunch counter opened with great success, with a varied menu and reasonable prices. For once, the passengers and railroad employees were able to eat a decent meal west of the Missouri River.24
The restaurant became so successful, in fact, that people traveling west were detraining in Topeka and not returning to the trains to go farther west but staying on in
23 Foster and Weiglin, 23. 24 Poling-Kempes, 36. 18
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Topeka. Fearful that the Southwest would not be populated west of Topeka, Santa Fe asked Fred Harvey to expand his business further down the railroad. By expanding the business, the traffic would not back up in Kansas and the Western movement would continue.25 Fred Harvey agreed and signed an exclusive contract with Santa Fe on
January 1, 1878. Harvey generally preferred to keep things simple with verbal agreements, but the business was growing and a written contract was now in order.
The second Harvey House was created in Florence, Kansas this time with a hotel attached as well that catered to elite travelers and their embrace of Victorian culture. The
Clifton Hotel was purchased and, as before, remodeled to fit Harvey‟s standards. Irish linen, French china, and English silver were purchased to outfit the facility. Harvey sent his sister out to purchase the mattresses for the hotel with instructions to find only the best. One way to judge this, he told her, was to only buy mattresses for the hotel that you would personally place in your own home. Harvey then went out to purchase rugs, hangings, and furniture that met his approval and standard. The furniture consisted of some of the finest walnut pieces one could find. Harvey‟s hotel was not only enjoyed by the customers that came as travelers on the railroad, but from the city of Florence as well.
In the summer of 1879, the Florence paper advertised the use of the hotel‟s bathrooms to women every Tuesday and Friday. On the other days men would be allowed to come by and use the facilities.26
25 Leavenworth Times (Leavenworth, Kansas), 16 May 1957. 26 “Department of Promotions “Fred Harvey History,” box 6, folder 120, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff. 19
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An unconventional business plan resulted in quality food and pleasant rooms at moderate prices which in turn created great business for the hotel.27 As tourism in the west became more popular with the upper-class Americans and Europeans, Fred Harvey and the Santa Fe, never wanting to miss an opportunity, began to cater to those willing to pay for a vacation.28 When it came time to fill the kitchen help, for example, Harvey went to Chicago to entice the chef he wanted to work for him. The result was hiring a chef for $5,000 a year; an unheard of salary for that time. As the years progressed
Harvey strove to train his own chef rather than attempt to hire one away from another restaurant. By doing this, he felt he would get better results. After the first few restaurants opened, however, he found he did not have time to personally train the chefs as he would have liked and so he hired his chefs from Europe.29
Besides the great chef hired at a fantastic wage, the townspeople of Florence were amazed at the prices Fred Harvey would pay for fresh food for his restaurant. A dozen prairie chickens were being bought for $1.50, a dozen quail for $.75, butter was $.10 a pound, and the highest prices anyone had heard of were being paid for fresh fruits and vegetables. It seemed amazing that a town with the population of 100 people would offer such fine cuisine. It certainly suggested that he was catering to tastes of the upper class.30
The first contract between Fred Harvey and the Santa Fe Railroad was to run for five years. In its formal contract Santa Fe agreed to stop at the mainline Harvey Houses twice a day. If for any reason the train did not stop at the Harvey House for customers to
27 Byron Harvey, box 3, folder 31, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff. 28 Poling-Kempes, 147-148. 29 Ibid., 78. 30 Cox, 133. 20
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eat, the railroad company would pay the Harvey Houses an agreed upon amount for the loss of business. This agreement was to make the transaction with the Santa Fe Railroad worthwhile for Fred Harvey as well as for the railroad.31 Due to the success of the Fred
Harvey eating houses and the advantage the restaurants gave Santa Fe, it renewed the contract when it ran out. The second contract signed between Fred Harvey and the Santa
Fe Railroad gave Harvey exclusive rights to the food service west of the Missouri River on the Santa Fe Railway. Another aspect of the contract was that the Santa Fe agreed to transport the fuel, ice, water, and the Harvey House employees for free. Travelers were choosing the Santa Fe Railroad over other railroad companies because they knew they would receive high quality food on their travels with Santa Fe while with other railroads they still risked hazardous eating establishments along the way. The benefits Santa Fe gave Fred Harvey proved financially beneficial to the restaurants.32
Fred Harvey believed in supplying his restaurants and hotels with the finest products to ensure his customers satisfaction. Every other year the Harvey‟s traveled to
Europe to pick out the linen tablecloths and napkins, silver serving pieces and eating utensils, crystal glassware, and china that would be used in his restaurants. Fred Harvey would routinely inspect his restaurants to make sure his high standards were being maintained. If the china or glassware had a crack in them, Harvey would break them to make sure they were never used again. Stories of Fred Harvey pulling tablecloths off tables to send the cracked or chipped items flying onto the floor were legendary. Harvey was also known to check the uniforms, employees‟ fingernails, food lockers, and other
31 Henderson, 44. 32 Foster and Weiglin, 26. 21
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facilities. White gloves were used to check the tops of doors, picture frames, and corners to make sure the restaurant was clean. These inspections were done by surprise with no warning given to the local managers so that everyone would be on guard at all times.33
Food was another aspect of the business Harvey did not scrimp on. Fred Harvey did not believe in using canned food. He had fresh fruits and vegetables shipped in from
California and fine meats shipped in from Kansas City. Local farms were found to supply fresh foods, giving Harvey an advantage over other restaurants in the area who could not afford the higher prices for fresh foods. A portion of the goods that were purchased from the local farmers were prairie chickens, quail, butter, and vegetables.34
Harvey‟s policy was to buy the best and pay fair prices. Water in small towns often came from alkali-laden streams so Fred Harvey had his water brought in by tank car so that the coffee would taste better. It is no surprise that Harvey‟s purchases were viewed by many as extravagant.35
As guests traveled Harvey wanted their menus to be varied from stop to stop.
Therefore, menus were coordinated so that you did not duplicate meals on a trip. Here is a sampling of menus on a 1915 trip from San Diego to Kansas City by the Aetna Life
Insurance Company Agents:
33 Cox. 134. 34 Henderson, 12. 35 Eugene Whitmore, “Customer Good-Will a la Fred Harvey,” American Business, July, 1938, 3. 22
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LUNCHEON Oxtail Anglaise Consommé Jelly Celery Bur Gherkins Fried Sand Dabs, Sauce Remoulade Lobster Cutler, Cardinal Chicken Pie, Americaine Omelette with Fresh Fruit Mashed Potatoes Brussels Sprouts
COLD Salmon, Mayonnaise Assorted Meats Ox Tongue Romaine and Orange Salad Diplomat Pudding, Vanilla Sauce Neufchatel Toasted Crackers Casaba Melon Coffee Tea Milk
DINNER Canapé Caviar Puree of Peas, St. Germaine Consommé in Cup Celery Salted Almonds Boiled Salmon, Hollandaise Potatoes Persil lade Cucumbers Calf Sweetbreads, Villeroi Peach a la Conde Filet Mignon, Béarnaise Roast Young Duck, Fruit Compote Candied Sweet Potatoes Lima Beans Water Cress Salad Pistachio Ice Cream Assorted Cakes Roquefort Neufchatel Coffee
23
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BREAKFAST Sliced Peaches Casaba Melon Stewed Prunes Cream of Wheat Rolled oats Corn Flakes Codfish Cakes and Bacon Diced Chicken with Green Peppers Virginia Ham with fried Tomato French Toast, Orange Marmalade Lamb Chops Eggs as Desired Julienne Potatoes Baked Potato Rice Cakes and Honey Rolls Toast Muffins Coffee Tea Cocoa
LUNCHEON
Vegetable Soup Radishes Ripe Olives Baked Barracuda, Portugaise Fricandeau of Veal, Vert Pre Spaghetti, Italienne Roast Ham, Champagne Sauce Potatoes rissole Fried Egg Plant
COLD Roast Beef Turkey Grape Fruit Salad Fruit Pudding, Raspberry Sauce Vanilla Ice Cream Petit Gruyere Toasted Crackers Coffee Tea Milk
24
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DINNER Canapé Othello Cream of Chicken a la Reine Consommé, Hot or Cold Celery Salted Pecans Filet of Halibut, Remonlade Parisienne Potatoes Cucumbers Lamb Chops, D’Uxelles Queen Fritters, Sabayon Prime Ribs of Beef au Aug Mashed Potatoes String Beans Roast Squab au Cresson Tomatoes Mayonnaise Peach Ice Cream Assorted Cakes Roquefort Eromage de Brie Coffee
BREAKFAST Cantaloupe Sliced Oranges Hominy Oatmeal Grape Nuts Boiled Salt Mackerel Roast Beef Hash, Southern Style Lamb Kidneys, en Brochette Omelette with Fresh Mushrooms Ham Bacon Mutton Chops Eggs as Desired Potatoes Sauté Baked Potato Corn Cakes with Maple Syrup Rolls Toast Muffins Coffee Tea Cocoa
LUNCHEON Puree of Navy Beans Tomato Bouillon in Cup Celery Young Onions Finnan Haddie, Delmonico New England Boiled Dinner Eggs, Viennoise Saddle of Mutton, Cumberland Potatoes au Grautin Hubbard Squash
25
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COLD Assorted Meats Ham Tongue Hearts of Lettuce Apple Tapioca Pudding Swiss Cheese Toasted Crackers Coffee Tea Milk
DINNER Casaba Melon Cream of Cauliflower Bouillon in Cup Radishes Ripe Olives Baked Lake Trout, aux Fines Herbs Persile Potatoes Cucumbers Fresh Mushrooms, Hoteliere Apple Portugaise Prime Ribs of Beef au Aus Mashed Potatoes Spinach in Cream Combination Salad Pineapple Ice Cream Assorted Cakes Roquefort Petit Gruyere Coffee
BREAKFAST
Persian Melon Baked Apple Stewed Prunes Rolled Oats Boiled Rice Shredded Wheat Sea Bass Sauté, Meuniere Corned Beef Hash, O’Brien Calf’s Liver, Country Style Broiled Ham Broiled Bacon Sirloin or Tenderloin Steak Eggs as Desired French Fried Potatoes Potatoes Minced in Cream Wheat Cakes and Maple Syrup Rolls Toast Muffins Coffee Tea Cocoa
26
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LUNCHEON Cream of Fresh Tomato Celery Mangoes Fried Oysters with Bacon Chicken Patty a la Toulouse Beef a la Mode, Potato Pancake Omelette with Asparagus Tips Potatoes, Delmonico New Peas COLD Assorted Meats Whitefish, Ravigote Potato Salad Cabinet Pudding, Claret Sauce Caprera Toasted Crackers Coffee Tea Milk
Harvey‟s choices on his menus show his desire to offer an elegant and sophisticated meal to his upscale clientele. By 1915 Harvey had already changed travel in the United States by offering great wares. Eating could now be an elaborate experience, rather than simply a means to sustain oneself while traveling in the west.
Harvey had proven the same meal did not have to be served at every stop, in fact creative meals could be possible with some forethought and planning. The menus and meals planned by Harvey were to be served in all of his restaurants, from the Kansas plains to tourist destinations in Arizona. Even as more restaurants were catering to the working and middling classes, Harvey Houses continued to serve food not commonly found in a person‟s home or diner. For example, Harvey prided himself on being able to serve fresh meats, such as salmon, veal, filet mignon, and oysters that he believed would be healthier and not cause gastronomic pains like he had experienced previously on the railroad.36
36 Menus, box 4, folder 98, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff. 27
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Not only were the restaurants to be nice and refined, but Harvey expected his customers to act in the same fashion. One way to ensure this was by setting standards detailing how one could act and dress inside his restaurants. The “coat rule” was enacted for the main dining rooms. The rule stated that men were to wear dinner jackets in the dining room. If one did not have their own jacket they would not be turned away, but instead loaned a dinner jacket that was kept on hand by the restaurants. Until 1921 there were no reports that anyone questioned this rule or ever disobeyed it. Then Campbell
Russell, Chairman of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, was in Purcell where he was denied entrance without a coat. Russell fought this rule for three years, ending up in the Oklahoma Supreme Court where the judge sided with Fred Harvey.37
While anyone was welcome in a Harvey House there were standards to be maintained. Not only did patrons have to wear a coat they were not allowed to swear in a
Fred Harvey establishment. In New Mexico when a group of cowboys entered the hotel on their horses they complained that the hotel was “too damned nice” and so they shot dishes off the table and pictures off the walls as a form of protest as they demanded food to be served to them. Harvey stepped in front of the men stating the no swearing rule and pointing out the fact that ladies were present. Then, he demanded the men leave his restaurant. It has been reported the men later returned to apologize to Harvey. As the story goes, their apology resulted in them being treated with a free dinner as long as they wore a coat.38 Harvey always believed coats like manners were a necessary part of men‟s attire especially in first class restaurants.39
37 Henderson, 25. 38 Fred Harvey, box 6, box 124-126, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and 28
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If Fred Harvey expected his guests to act a certain way then he expected his employees to treat each customer with the same kind of standards. Another famous Fred
Harvey story starts with Fred Harvey walking through one of his restaurants when he heard a customer complaining about the service and food. Harvey asked, “What is all the trouble?” The steward answered, “Oh, that man is a crank. No one can please him.” “Of course he is a crank, but we must please him. It is our business to please cranks. Anyone can please a gentleman,” Harvey replied.40 This shows how Harvey wanted all of the customers regardless of their attitudes to be shown the utmost care while in his establishments.
Overall, the policies kept by the Harvey system were not to gain short term high profits, but to look at the long term. The most important profits to the company were the ones that continued year after year. Over the years there were opportunities to provide a lower quality product and yet raise the prices that were charged, but Harvey refused to do this. Regardless of who his patrons were or where they came from in life Harvey expected his business to maintain its integrity and uphold certain cultural standards.41
There was one manager that had a monthly deficit of $1,000 so he found a way to cut corners and save the company $500. Harvey, believing his standards were more important than saving money, fired the manager. The manager was later rehired at another location where he did not make the mistake of cutting corners again.42
Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff. 39 Bryant, 332. 40 Whitmore, 1. 41 Byron Harvey, box 3, folder 31, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff. 42 Kelly, 46-47. 29
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Due to Fred Harvey‟s diligence and care his reputation exceeded everyone‟s original dreams of travel and fine dining. When well-to-do travelers saw “Meals by Fred
Harvey” on the advertisements they knew the quality they would receive. But ultimately what completed the image of bringing “civilization” to the West was not just the food or dishes on which they were served but the girls that carried the trays. The next chapter looks at the girls Fred Harvey hired to serve his famous meals. Breaking with long standing practices of hiring male waiters Harvey changed cultural standards by hiring women who would be symbols of wholesome, middle-class standards of etiquette and gentility.
30
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CHAPTER III
THE HARVEY GIRL: THE KIND YOU MARRY
When Fred Harvey originally opened his restaurants he followed the standards of the time in regard to gender and hired exclusively men to serve his customers. In 1883 at a Harvey House in Raton, New Mexico, a group of male employees got into a fist fight one evening and failed to report to work the next day. As luck (or bad luck) would have it, Fred Harvey showed up in Raton for a surprise inspection that very day. Harvey already was known to have tossed questionable managers out onto the railroad platforms for the sake of professionalism. But, Tom Gable, Raton‟s manager, thinking quickly came up with an innovative solution that did much more than simply save his job.
Instead of hiring men who were associated with insubordination and rowdiness, Gable thought they should hire women to serve railroad passengers. Women had been perceived as being more docile and easier to manage than their working-class male counterparts.1 Customers and railroad employees were so pleased with the change at the
Raton Harvey House that Fred Harvey decided to place women in all of his restaurants.2
When Harvey began hiring women to wait tables in his restaurants he not only set in motion transformations in the industry, but created an American icon, the “Harvey Girl.”
In the 19th century, only the poorest of women typically worked for wages outside of the home. In order to make ends meet, women worked in manufacturing in female-
1George H. Foster and Peter C. Weiglin, The Harvey House Cookbook: Memories of Dining Along The Santa Fe Railroad (Atlanta: Longstreet Press, 1992), 75. 2 Lesley Poling-Kempes, The Harvey Girls Women Who Opened The West (New York: Marlowe & Company, 1991), 42. 31
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dominated industries or in domestic service, an occupation seen as an extension of work done in the home. Many dutiful daughters and mothers also engaged in outwork in which they produced or assembled goods in their tenement flats that were then sold at piece- rates to central shops. Wages were particularly meager, but respectability was rarely questioned for women who remained primarily in the home.3 In the latter half of the century, a few respectable occupations such as teaching became seen as suitable women‟s work, but these jobs were not usually within reach for most working-class girls.4 For the poor, prostitution was a frequent reminder not only of hard times families faced, but what it typically meant when women ventured outside the home to serve men‟s needs.
Waitressing, in this day and time, was looked down upon because it involved dealing with men often in unsupervised situations beyond the realm of the family.
Originally waitressing meant serving alcohol not necessarily food. Alcohol contributed to the existing concerns since one‟s inhibitions were lowered and it was associated with the male-dominated, working-class world of the saloons, prostitution, and gambling.5
Even fancy restaurants in hotels were off limits for women, because they served exclusively male travelers and businessmen.6 Women who crossed the threshold of any male sphere put themselves at odds with Victorian respectability.7 Women who ignored social mores and worked in taverns and saloons relied heavily on tips to supplement their
3 Christine Stansell, City of Women: Sex and Class in New York, 1789-1860 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1986), 114-115. 4 Alice Kessler-Harris, Out To Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982), 57. 5 Kathy Peiss, Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986), 17-18, 20-21. 6 Dorothy Sue Cobble, Dishing It Out: Waitresses and Their Unions in the Twentieth Century (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991), 24. 7 Alison Owings, Hey, Waitress! The USA From the Other Side Of The Tray (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002), 8. 32
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income and these tips often came from socializing and flirting with the men they were serving. Therefore, to be a waitress one spoke with unfamiliar and often different men on a daily basis, tainting women who worked in restaurants and making waitressing a threat to middle-class culture.8
Fred Harvey, being the brilliant restaurateur he was, came up with a solution to this problem without compromising his embrace of Victorian propriety. He would transform the image of the occupation and make waitressing respectable. This would have been an important accomplishment for any restaurant, but an even greater feat for places out West deemed barely “civilized.” Fred Harvey, would make it possible, not only for young unmarried women to find employment, but for the West to remain an adventurous place.9 First, he insisted that the women hired to wait tables in a Fred
Harvey restaurant were called Harvey Girls, never waitresses. To change the image of the job, he had to change more than the name. Harvey‟s employees were to be upstanding, educated and chaste women. For example, his ads in the papers read:
“Young women of good character, attractive and intelligent, 18 to 30, to work in Harvey
Eating Houses in the West.”,10 and in The Slaton Slatonite: “GIRLS WANTED for the
Fred Harvey service. Apply to Manager the Harvey House, Slaton, Texas.”11
Harvey often advertised in the East and Midwest for workers because there were so few “respectable” women in the West at this time. He set up an employment agency in Chicago to interview the women who wanted to be Harvey Girls. During the hiring
8 Cobble, 24. 9 Marion White, “The Harvey Girls,” The Woman, September 1945, 1. 10 Foster and Weiglin, 75. 11 The Slaton Slatonite (Slaton, Texas), 19 May 1916. 33
Texas Tech University, Brenna Stewart Dugan, December 2008 process, one‟s private life was dissected to ensure the Harvey Girl was a wholesome young woman.12 After being hired in Chicago they were sent out west to work in one of the numerous Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe line.13 In all, as many as 100,000
Harvey Girls came west from 1883 to the 1950s. Many of whom could have easily come from working-class and rural backgrounds because the Harvey company paid for the girls‟ transportation out west. At the same time, they could not have come from too rough a station in life, because they had to meet middle-class notions of respectability during their interview.14 A sense of adventure certainly could have crossed class boundaries. A Harvey manager‟s wife was questioned by a patron one day as to the type of girls working in the Harvey House. She replied, “The same as your daughters. Girls from good homes and good backgrounds – who want to travel or get away from some confining job.” Still townspeople on occasion looked down on the Harvey Girls.
Harvey Girl Laura White once attended a church service where the preacher said, “I‟d rather see the girls in this congregation in hell than working at the Harvey House.”15
Harvey believing he had a good idea and not wanting the perception of the West to taint his plans came up with a solution to preserve the girls respectability.16 In 1883, when the Harvey Girls began working for Fred Harvey the West was still associated with cowboys, railroaders, farmers, miners, and women who worked as prostitutes. Harvey wanted to spread his business and values westward. By hiring “respectable” women to
12 Foster and Weiglin, 75. 13 Patrice Smart, “Those Harvey Girls: The story of Santa Fe depot waitresses who helped civilize the Old West,” Railroad Magazine , December 1964, 13-14. 14 Poling-Kempes, 52-54. 15 Laura White, “Harvey Girl,” Railroad Magazine, February 1945, 83. 16 Poling-Kempes, 43. 34
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work in his restaurants Harvey was able to maintain the quality restaurants he wanted and encourage men to look and act more like their East coast gentlemanly counterpart.17 But controlling the behavior of his male clientele was far less of a concern than his female employees upon which the reputation of his business rested.
Therefore, even when she was not at work, the Harvey Girl was to be closely supervised. Thus Fred Harvey built dormitories for the Harvey Girls to live in. This allowed the Harvey Company to ensure the women he hired were of good upstanding character and maintained those characteristics as they served in his restaurants.18 Every girl had a ten o‟clock curfew that was checked by one of the girls who had reached the rank of supervisor. Missing curfew three times could result in a girl being fired from the
Fred Harvey Company. Exceptions to the curfew came during special occasions. If a man wanted to see one of the girls he had to meet her in the chaperoned courting parlor.19
Over time these rules were not as rigid as at their conception. Harvey Girl, Rose
Farschon explained that the manager‟s wife “kept an eye on us [the Harvey Girls], she knew what was going on cause we know she went in our rooms when we were working.
But, that was okay she never disturbed anything, but we knew she checked on things.”
By the 1940s curfews were also lifted. The girls were allowed to come and go as they pleased as long as they made it in for their shifts.20
Rose Farschon worked in a General Merchandise store in Nebraska before working at the Slaton Harvey House. Traveling to Slaton, Texas to attend a wedding
17 Foster and Weiglin, 75. 18 Cobble, 39. 19 James A. Cox. “How Good Food and Harvey „skirts‟ won the West,” Smithsonian, September 1987, 134. 20 Rose Farschon, interview by author, 10 March 2003, Slaton, Texas, tape recording. 35
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Farschon decided she liked the area and after her aunt found her a job at the Harvey
House she decided to stay. During her employment at the Harvey House, 1936-1939,
Rose lived in the upstairs dormitories. The opportunity came up for Rose to work out in the Grand Canyon at the Fred Harvey Houses and Hotels, but at that point she had met her future husband and stayed in Texas.21
In 1926, Molly Johnson became a Harvey Girl in Slaton, Texas. Drought had taken the family crop that year leaving the family desperate for money. Johnsons father found the closest Harvey House after a relative who worked for the Harvey Company bragged on what a great place it was to work. Taking Molly with him, he spoke to the manager who agreed to hire Molly. With free room and board she was able to send her monthly income back to her family. A little over a year later the manager handed
Johnson a ticket telling her she had been transferred to Vaughn, New Mexico, but first she was granted two weeks at home. At both locations Molly worked the night shift so she could attend high school during the day even though she would not graduate.
Johnson eventually quit her job to marry one of the cooks.22
To be sure, Harvey Girls who left their life and family to dedicate themselves to their jobs may have liked the supervision, protection, and sense of family the Harvey
Organization provided. Isabel Hill, a former Harvey girl, explained that she thought of the other girls she worked with as sisters. The Fred Harvey Organization had a family feel and that was helped by the fact that the girls lived together at the Harvey House.23
21 Ibid. 22 Molly Johnson, interview by author, 22 March 2003, Jenks, Oklahoma, tape recording. 23 Ted J. Simon, “Trainload of Memories Slaton group lays tracks to restore Harvey House,” Lubbock Avalanche Journal, 19 December 1991, Neighbors, p. 2. 36
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No matter where they came from or where they were headed they all had one common link, they were Harvey Girls. Molly Johnson tells of a time the Harvey Company stepped in to take care of her. In 1927, when Johnson found out she was being transferred to the
Harvey House in Vaughn, New Mexico, she went to spend a few days with her family.
Her brother had contracted smallpox at school and unknowingly she had contracted the disease while she was home, but not showing symptoms she boarded the train for New
Mexico. By the time she got off the train she had broken out and was sick. Instead of sending her home the Harvey Company put her in a private room and called the company doctor. Johnson remembers everyone taking care of her like she was their child until she was ready to return to work.24
Even though Harvey Girls are the most famous employees of the Harvey House half of the employees were men. There is much written on the Harvey Girls and what it took for a woman to join the work force, but there is something to be said for the men and boys that also joined the Harvey ranks. As a teenager Wendell Cranfill was approached by the manager of the Slaton Harvey House to work as a busboy. Even though Cranfill looked forward to taking the job his mother was not sold on the idea. She felt “working around all those waitresses wasn‟t a good atmosphere for a boy that age.” Cranfill feels his dad overruled his mother and he began his career as a Harvey House employee.
Cranfill‟s mother‟s attitude shows even by the 1920s there were still negative connotations to men and women working outside of the home together. When Cranfill graduated from high school he was approached by the Newsstand manager to take the
24 Molly Johnson, interview by author, 22 March 2003, Jenks, Oklahoma, tape recording. 37
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night shift. Cranfill again began working at the Harvey House, but would eventually leave when the Assistant Superintendant of the Railroad offered him the bill and voucher clerk job in the accounting department for the railroad.25
The men held positions of managers, chefs, buyers, commissary superintendents, and busboys. One of the jobs that the manager had to complete was to walk through the restaurant and assure the customers that there was no hurry. Wendell Cranfill, a Harvey busboy, recalled filling in for the manager from time to time. He would walk through the dining room and say, “Passengers have 20 minutes for lunch ample notice will be given before departure of the train.”26 The managers were able to keep track of the train departures and they saw to it that the customers did not miss their trains. But most importantly the managers did not want the customers to feel rushed while eating their lunches.27 The staff of the Harvey House was to be ready for the guests before they ever left the train. The sheer number of customers in such a short period of time made efficiency all the more important. Before the train stopped the brakeman would find out how many people wanted to eat at the Harvey House and the numbers were sent to the teletype operator so that the restaurant could be prepared. As the travelers got off the train a gong was rung so the people could find the Harvey House as quick as possible.28
25 Wendell Cranfill, interview by author, 26 April 2003, Lubbock, Texas, tape recording. 26 Ibid. 27 Keith L. Bryant, Jr., History of the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe Railway (New York: Macmillan, 1974; reprint Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982), 114 (page citations are to the reprint edition). 28 Rosa Walston Latimer, “The Harvey Girls,” Texas Highways, February 1992, 21. 38
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Figure 1. Photograph of Slaton Harvey House Male Employees. Courtesy of the Slaton Museum.
Figure 2. Photograph of Slaton Harvey House Employees. Courtesy of the Slaton Museum.
39
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When a train pulled in to the station, all employees of the Harvey House were hard at work for the duration of the stay, but there was plenty of work to be done before the trains arrived and after they left the station. Farschon remembered having to clean the counters and the large coffee urns continuously. There were at least two coffee urns so you could clean one while making coffee in the other. The coffee cups and saucers were kept under the coffee urns in a warmer so that they were ready at any time. Of course, accidents will happen as Farschon recalls. One of the other girls was to clean the coffee urn, but the cleaner came in bar form, and she forgot the bar was inside and began making a fresh pot of coffee. Needless to say, that pot of coffee would not have met
Harvey‟s standards. Luckily the mistake was quickly corrected. Many of the girls learned that there was lots of work to be done, and in a pinch they could turn to the cooks and busboys to help out.29
However, it was ultimately up to the Harvey Girl to make sure the guest was happy. To do this, training manuals insisted the waitress was to smile, greet the customer, and be courteous throughout the meal. The Harvey Girls were not at the restaurant just to look pretty; they had a job to do as well. Therefore, training in the
Harvey Service was rigorous. The girls had an exact way to serve the food and treat the customers. The role of the Harvey Girl was one of the most important in the company. If the Harvey Girl did not do her job well then the customer would be unsatisfied causing the customer to be unhappy. The Harvey Girl was to be courteous, interested, and
29 Rose Farschon, interview by author, 10 March 2003, Slaton, Texas, tape recording. 40
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informed of the menu at all times to make the dinner an experience the customer would want to repeat.30
Years later, former Harvey Girl, Kay Zavertnik summed up the qualities and qualifications of a Harvey Girl with the following: “She must have the diplomacy of a
Winston Churchill, the social grace of an Emily Post, the speed of a Banshee jet, the smile of a Greek Goddess, the patience of Job.” At the same time, she needed “the memory of an elephant, the thick skin of a rhinoceros, the strength of an Atlas, the staying power of a mother-in-law, the condition of a professional football lineman, and the good feet of a Roger Bannister.” But it was also her manners and appearance that matters. “She must have the grooming of a Duchess and the speaking voice of a debutante; and last but not least she must have a love of humanity, for humans show their worst side when they are hungry.” Also her relationship with her coworkers mattered.
“When she is gracious to her guests as well as to her associates, she has mastered the art of serving the public.”31
Once the customers made it to the restaurant one Harvey Girl would take the orders and then the drink girl would come by to fill up the glasses. Depending on the set up of the cups the well-trained, drink girl knew exactly how to fill the glasses. A cup placed right-side up in the saucer meant coffee. If the cup was upside down in the saucer then hot tea was to be poured. When a cup was tilted against the saucer, iced tea was the preferred drink. Milk was to be poured if the cup was upside down and away from the
30 Harvey Girl Training Manual, box 6, folder 109, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff. 31 Kay Zavertnik, “What a Waitress Should Be from a Waitress Viewpoint,” Fred Harvey Yesterday and Today, August-September 1976, 2. 41
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saucer.32 If a customer changed the place setting they might end up with the wrong drink.
This system was set up to accommodate all of the customers in a short period of time.
Harvey even had his own idea of how the girls were to take a customer‟s order.
The head waitress, also known as the “wagon boss”, became responsible for training the girls in setting the tables. Orders were to be taken without the use of pencil and paper and then the order was recited to the men in the kitchen. As the years progressed this system did change and the waitresses were allowed to write the order down. Also, the girls were not to talk to the customers while they were eating. They were not only taught how to interact with customers but to serve them. The wagon boss, for example, made certain that every table was to receive a clean white tablecloth and the linens were to be spotless with no frayed edges. All glasses and dinnerware were to be inspected for chips and removed if any were found. Learning to pour coffee without sloshing it was also of importance.33
Indeed, the table was considered the first impression the guest received from the restaurant. Therefore, the table was to be set properly every time. Placement of all place settings for the table was dictated to the Harvey Girls in the training manuals. Salt, pepper, and sugar were to be found in the center of the table if the table seats four. If the table seats two then these items are to be pushed to the edge of the table next to the wall.
All of the silver should be half an inch from the edge of the table. The forks are to be placed to the left of the service plate while the knives and spoons are to be to the right of the plate. The bread and butter plate rested just above the forks. Glasses were to be at
32 Walston Latimer, 21. 33 Smart, 16. 42
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the tip of the knife, and the blade of the knife should be facing the plate. Napkins were the only item that may differ in placement from restaurant to restaurant.34
Like the service, the uniform was designed to accentuate the middle-class etiquette of the girls. The uniforms were long sleeved black dresses with white “Elsie” collars and a starched white apron. The skirts were to be eight inches from the floor, no longer and no shorter. If a girl tried to change the length of the uniforms she would be reprimanded and required to change immediately. Having any stains or imperfections on the uniform would also result in the uniform being changed promptly. No makeup was to be worn while working on the restaurant floor because it was associated with the type of women that worked in the saloons. Jewelry, except for the Harvey pin, was not allowed either. The hose and shoes were black. Their hair was to be in a net and tied with a regulation ribbon.35
Figure 3. Photograph of the Slaton Harvey Girls. Courtesy of the Slaton Museum.
34 Harvey Girl Training Manual, box 6, folder 109, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff. 35 Foster and Weiglin, 76. 43
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Fred Harvey provided laundry service to the girls to ensure the cleanliness of the uniforms. Harvey understood what most did not. You have to pay for and help your employees afford the appearance you desire. Even though Harvey was paying a decent wage he knew that to keep the uniforms in the condition he preferred he had to launder them for the girls and not make those expenses come out of their pockets. This is an ongoing debate even in today‟s workforce. Naomi Klein addresses this in her book No
Logo. Talking to retail clerks Klein finds that companies are expecting their employees to look a certain way, specifically professional and clean, yet many of these employees can‟t afford to do their laundry.36
Despite rules and regulations, the reasons to become a Harvey Girl were as numerous as the women who took the positions. Molly Johnson began working at the
Slaton Harvey House, at the age of 16, after a drought took her father‟s West Texas crops in the 1920s. A cousin had been working at a Harvey House in Oklahoma and told the family what a wonderful place it was to work; so Johnson‟s father researched the company and found a Harvey House in Slaton, just 55 miles from their home. Taking
Molly with him, her father talked to the manager, and Molly began her career as a Harvey
Girl. At this time, Harvey Girls were making $30 a month so Johnson began sending her pay home to help the family.37 In 1936, Rose Farschon traveled from Nebraska to Texas to attend a family wedding. Not happy with her job in a General Merchandise Store back home, Farschon mentioned to her aunt that if she had a job there (Slaton, Texas) she believed she would stay. Her aunt responded, “I‟ll get you one.” Farschon‟s aunt was
36 Naomi Klein, No Logo (New York: Picador USA, 2000), 239. 37 Molly Johnson, interview by author, 22 March 2003, Jenks, Oklahoma, tape recording. 44
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friends with the manager of the Harvey House and after talking to him Rose stayed in
Texas as a Harvey Girl.38
Figure 4. Photograph of the Slaton Harvey House. Courtesy of the Slaton Museum. Being a Harvey Girl was different than working in sales or other restaurants in that it offered young women adventure and the possibilities of a new life out West including upward mobility. One of Harvey‟s biggest problems with hiring women was turnover. Once women moved out West many would meet a man and then get married causing them to quit their jobs. With relatively few women in the West, ranchers, railroaders, and cowboys often met their future wives at the Harvey Houses. After marriage Harvey Girls often became the society women that helped reform the rough and tumble towns in the West. Nevertheless, a problem of a high turnover rates in staff
38 Rose Farschon, interview by author, 10 March 2003, Slaton, Texas, tape recording. 45
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troubled Harvey to such a degree that each girl was required to sign a one-year contract with the Harvey Company.39
Whether or not men met their wives, they often thought that they would and this romantic image helped turn Harvey Girls from waitresses into icons. The Harvey Girls‟ beauty and charm were often remembered in poems like this one by S.E. Kiser:
Oh, the pretty Harvey Girl beside my chair, A fairer maiden I shall never see, She was winsome, she was neat, she was gloriously sweet, And she certainly was very good to me.”40
And this one by the Amarillo Globe reporter, John Moore;
One crisp December Morn – Chilly was the day, I sat behind my coffee In a Harvey House Café. Fred’s coffee is a nectar – A beverage supreme, And the girl who serves it Adds glamour to my dream. Since Congress made amendments And set aside the toddy, Harvey has a substitute To cheer us, soul and body. The aroma most enticing, Blending with the steam, The face across the hazy cup – The vision of a queen. I like my morning coffee,
39 Foster and Weiglin, 76-77. 40 S.E. Kiser, quoted by Tony Privett, “Harvey House, Slaton History Intertwined,” The Slatonite, 30 July 1992, p. 1.
46
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Before the busy noon, When she has time to chatter, While I dally with my spoon. All dressed in spotless linen, Her hair all in a curl, So purely sweetly winning, Is the happy Harvey girl.41
To be sure, not everyone welcomed Harvey or his girls. Many began to believe the “civilized” Harvey Houses ruined the old West. At first some complained about not wanting to be accountable for the way they acted, for they knew if women were around their way of living would be unacceptable. Harvey Girls changed the towns they moved into. Once a Harvey Girl married and stayed out west she became part of the community she had been working in. Gambling became less profitable as men were spending their money courting Harvey Girls rather than playing cards. On the flip side church attendance began to rise.42 Those who relished the disorder of the West fought to keep it that way. Unexplained fires would happen at the Harvey Houses as well as ruined food shipments, but the Santa Fe continued to believe in Fred Harvey and continued their expansion west. Fred Harvey expected manners not only from his employees but from his customers as well. Customers were to watch their language as well as wear acceptable clothing.43
Overall, men were happy to see women moving out West. Some in an attempt to improve their chances to marry a Harvey Girl sent off for a book called Behavior for All
41 John Moore, quoted in James David Henderson, Meals by Fred Harvey: A Phenomenon of The American West (Fort Worth, Texas: Texas Christian University Press, 1969), 50. 42 Marion White, 3-4. 43 “Department of Promotions “Fred Harvey History,” box 6, folder 120, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff. 47
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Occasions: A Manual of Gentlemanly Conduct in Ten Easy Lessons. The book cost 50 cents and the Elite Publishing Company made a fortune.44 At the end of the century it was estimated that 20,000 Harvey Girls had married railroad engineers, conductors, station agents, local merchants, and ranchers. There are even stories that 4,000 babies were born to these couples that were named either Fred, Harvey, or both.45 Harvey reasoned that if a girl made it six months in the west without an engagement ring then she was usually good for three to four years of waiting tables.46
Two Harvey Girls recall meeting their husbands while working for Fred Harvey.
In the late 1920s Molly Johnson was working at the Vaughn, New Mexico Harvey House along with a cook named Clyde Jordan. Employees were not allowed to marry Johnson insisted. In fact they did not have dormitories for married couples. During the interview
Johnsons son Jake Jordan was present, reminding his mom, “They wouldn‟t allow you to go together, would they mom?” When asked how they ended up married, Johnson recalled, “Clyde was the cook in the kitchen. Well, I didn‟t pay attention to him when I first went to work there because we weren‟t suppose too. You know. We weren‟t suppose to flirt with anybody, but he put his eye on me.” Knowing it was not allowed
Johnson stayed clear of Clyde but he made his presence known to her. “When I would start back there he would throw a pot lid at me or something.” Clyde and Molly never officially dated since it was against the rules, but working together on the night shift they got to know one another. Working on the same shift did not help at first as Johnson
44 Marion White, 3-4. 45 Cox, 134. 46 Carla Kelly, “No More Beans! The Restaurants That Won The West,” American History Illustrated, (October 1981), 44. 48
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recalls, “I didn‟t even like him. He was too fresh, too forward. My mother said to just always watch that kind, you know. He wanted to be friends with me and I didn‟t. I just wanted to learn how to be a waitress.” Eventually Johnson began talking to Clyde because she thought he was very nice and friendly. Once they decided to marry they lost their jobs ending up in Southern Oklahoma where Clyde began farming.47
Rose Farschon also married after meeting her future husband, Bill Farschon, at the Harvey House, but he was a railroader, not a Harvey cook. Farschons cousin was also working at the Harvey House and dating the night cashier, “he was the one that dreamed up this double date idea.” At first, Bill was not interested because he already had two girlfriends. Rose was not convinced when she first heard the idea either. “He came and told me I have a date for you. I said, oh no you don‟t. I don‟t blind date. So he brought him in and introduced him. He was the handsomest fellow I had ever seen and he was so nice. I thought maybe I better reconsider. I went on the double date and neither of us dated anyone else after that.”48
Not only has Fred Harvey been credited for “civilizing” the west but the Harvey
Girls had a profound influence. Previously, it has been attributed that the presence of women led to the establishment of schools, churches, and libraries. Women were not passive in these pursuits; women were the ones suggesting community projects and then raising funds to see their ideas become realities.49 The West changed the traditional views of women to some degree. Women in the West had the freedom to be active in the
47 Molly Johnson, interview by author, 22 March 2003, Jenks, Oklahoma, tape recording. 48 Rose Farschon, interview by author, 10 March 2003, Slaton, Texas, tape recording. 49 Susan Armitage and Elizabeth Jameson, ed., The Women’s West (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987), 13-14. 49
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community and enter into business ventures as long as they managed domestic duties of caring for the children and the house.50 To be sure, some of the girls would fulfill their contract and then return home, others would continue their employment with Fred
Harvey. However, there were many women who would marry and make their homes in the West.51 Harvey may have lost many of his employees to marriage, but they in turn helped settle the West much to his liking.
50 Poling-Kempes, 51. 51 Walston Latimer, 21. 50
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CHAPTER IV
THE PORTRAIT OF A HARVEY GIRL
Eventually the railroad lost most of its prosperous passenger service business due to wars and depression, yet the greatest problems came with the increased use of the automobile and the airlines in the post World War II era. Numerous railroad lines had challenged railroad companies to provide more services with faster delivery times. The
Santa Fe consistently reviewed their services to be competitive and profitable since the late 19th century. In 1892, luxury trains were added to the line in hopes of drawing more customers. Over the years, luxury trains on the Santa Fe were named the Limited, the
Missionary, the Saint, the Angel, Deluxe, the Navajo, the Scout, the Chief, the Super
Chief, and the El Capitan. With each new name came a round of improvements allowing the trains to be larger, faster, and more fuel-efficient. To attract customers the Santa Fe began renovating their tracks to allow the trains to move even faster.1 Technology, increased services, and shorter travel times could not compete; however, with the automobile and airlines. And with the decline of Santa Fes passenger travel came the demise of the Harvey House. As the two companies pulled out of the small railroad towns, the communities paid the ultimate price. The economic stability once enjoyed in these communities disappeared as their reliable income source moved out.2 However,
Harvey House management would not give up without a fight. In the 1940s, the Harvey
1 Keith L. Bryant, Jr., History of the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe Railway (New York: Macmillan, 1974; reprint Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982), 332-336 (page citations are to the reprint edition). 2 Lesley Poling-Kempes, The Harvey Girls Women Who Opened The West (New York: Marlowe & Company, 1991), 182-183. 51
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Girl was being called upon, once again, in attempt to save the day, not only for the
Harvey House but also for the Santa Fe Railway. A widely-publicized, company-wide contest to find and celebrate the ideal Harvey Girl would hopefully turn things around and remind customers of dining service that helped romanticize train travel. This chapter looks not only at the changes that led to the decline of the Harvey company, but the meaning of a contest designed not only to rescue the passenger service of the railroad but resurrect gender roles reminiscent of turn-of-the-century Victorian culture displayed so nicely in what became defined as the “Portrait of a Harvey Girl.”
At the turn of the century, the Harvey Company had planned to expand its operation. During this rather prosperous time of expansion, Fred Harvey passed away on
February 9, 1901 after fifteen years of failing health. Due to Harvey‟s poor health, strategies had already been in place so that little interruption to the business would take place upon his death. Harvey himself stated in his will that business should go on as usual. As a testament to business savvy and prior to Harvey‟s passing his sons, Ford and
Byron, had already taken the helm to ensure little disruption would occur.3 By 1901,
Fred Harvey had expanded his lunch counter in Topeka, Kansas to encompass fifteen hotels, forty-seven restaurants, thirty railroad dining cars, and food service on the San
Francisco Bay ferry system. Sixteen years later the Fred Harvey Company expanded to include one hundred Harvey Houses in the American West, the largest the company would ever be.4
3 Ibid., 44. 4 Judi Morris, The Harvey Girls: The Women Who Civilized the West (New York: Walker and Company, 1994), 84-85. 52
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While the death of Fred Harvey may not have changed his company, something much bigger would. With the United States entering World War I the Harvey Houses and the railroads would see a change and interruption in their services. In December
1917, President Wilson signed the Federal Possession and Control Act to speed up the transportation of war materials. Hence, the U.S. Railroad Administration then ran the railroads, stopping the luxury passenger service until 1920. The decline in travel would also postpone The Harvey Company‟s continued plans to expand.5 The men and women who had donned Harvey uniforms traded them in for the uniforms of the armed forces.
With their willingness to help out their country they left the Harvey Company in a lurch.
Harvey employees that had retired came out of retirement to help in a time of need for the country and the Harvey Company. Retired employees began wearing the Harvey uniform and serving the troops that rolled through the station.6 The Harvey Company began advertising for help literally everywhere and the shortage caused them to hire almost anyone who applied.7 Ultimately, the shortage resulted in lowering Harvey‟s standards for the first time.
Efficiency and quick turn over was the rule, not fine dining. Laura White, a former Harvey Girl, writes about her service at the Harvey House during World War I.
There were days the girls served three troop trains plus the regular trains and local customers. One waitress could easily serve ninety-six soldiers during the day plus regular customers. When things got really busy the girls had to clean their own tables
5 Robert L. Smith, “Fred Harvey,” Motor Coach Age, August-September 1983, 13. 6 Patrice Smart, “Those Harvey Girls: The story of Santa Fe depot waitresses who helped civilize the Old West,” Railroad Magazine , December 1964, 16. 7 Laura White, “Harvey Girl,” Railroad Magazine, February 1945, 80. 53
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and reset the tables then let it be known by raising their hands that they were ready for the next group to be seated. Troop trains, unlike regular passenger trains, stayed until every man was served. By the end of the day, White writes that the girls dragged themselves to bed ready for rest only to here the callboy shout, “Four o‟clock! Five hundred Marines for breakfast this morning!” The morning would come and the girls would be at it again.8
Harvey Girl Gertrude Burton recalled the girls cheering and crying for the boys going to war. With the soldiers doing their part to keep America safe the Harvey Girls did not worry about the hours or the delays, but worked to serve those in the Armed Services and then cheered them on as they left and rejoiced in their returning.9
Upon the conclusion of World War I travel picked up again. Passenger travel on the Santa Fe Railway hit its peak in the 1920s.10 But now other railroad companies were not the only challenge to the Santa Fe. The automobile, specifically the Ford Model T, brought stiff competition to passenger train service. The number of customers traveling long distances by car instead of train pushed the ATSF to offer more services than ever before. The railroad removed their older cars and limited the number of passenger trains so they could add larger dining cars and lounge cars. To increase interest in the West, the
ATSF promoted travel to New Mexico and Arizona through calendars, brochures and magazine advertisements. The ATSF and Harvey began “Indian Detours” and train-bus service to allow passengers time to tour the area. For a time this strategy worked
8 Ibid, 88. 9 Gertrude K. Burton, to Readers Digest, 30 October 1940, copy, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900- 1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff. 10 Smith, 13. 54
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allowing the Santa Fe and Harvey to make a profit despite their competition.11 The 1920s were a prosperous period for the travel industry, but when the stock market crashed in
October, 1929 the economy caused travel to slow down considerably.12
As the Depression settled over the nation luxuries like vacations were no longer feasible as people were struggling to maintain food and shelter for their families. With passenger train service in decline Harvey Houses had to pull out of some locations. The
Harvey Company, not wanting to let people go, would move employees when possible, but those transfers came at a price, employees often took jobs in undesirable locations and had to leave their families behind.13 For the Harvey Girls a reduction in pay was not uncommon. Some women lost as much as twenty dollars a month in wages during the
Depression. Fortunately, with room and board still included the Harvey Girls were luckier than others and they were still employed.14 Harvey‟s good will during the
Depression did not end with his employees. When people showed up hungry at the back of the restaurant with no money to pay for dinner they were still fed.15
Before the country could fully recover from the Depression the United States found itself embattled in another World War. Like the beginning of World War I the need for more Harvey Girls was realized and women again came out of retirement to help. Troop trains began carrying soldiers, sailors, and airmen across the country. In
1943 alone a record setting thirty million meals were served at the Harvey Houses with eight million of those going to servicemen. To explain the changes that the war brought
11 Bryant, 332-333. 12 Smith, 20. 13 Poling-Kempes, 188. 14 Ibid., 113. 15 Morris, 72. 55
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to the Fred Harvey Houses the company took out advertisements in magazines like Life,
Newsweek, Fortune, U.S. News, and Cosmopolitan. The advertisement features a fabled
Private Pringle to represent the thousands of soldiers eating in the Harvey Houses at that time. Throughout the campaign the Harvey Company tried to explain how rationing and shortages may have lowered the famous Harvey Houses standards but it was for a good cause.16 The ads made sure everyone knew the 7,000 Fred Harvey employees were trying to fulfill their assignment to bring the boys home. “When that job is done, all of us again can devote full time to seeing that you always enjoy the hospitality famous through
70 years of Harvey family management.”17
With the loss of a more lucrative clientele came the decline of Harvey‟s original standards. Indeed, war-time shortages in labor transformed the hiring process and the
Harvey Girl look. To be sure, the post-World War II Harvey Girl would have been turned away from the original employment agency in Chicago. The new Harvey Girl was over-thirty, married, and sometimes even divorced. Women working in restaurants were no longer as committed to their job because they were not as dependent upon the company for housing or wage work. By the 1950s, the positions were being filled by teenagers, college students, and married mothers, not young girls looking for marriage or adventure in the West.18 Once hired, the Harvey girl was no longer classically-trained in
Victorian etiquette. The memorable uniform was altered as well; white hosiery was not always available to the girls, laundry service declined, and the long-sleeved blouses were
16 Smith, 23. 17 Advertisements, box 6, folders 124-126, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff. 18 Dorothy Sue Cobble, Dishing It Out: Waitresses and Their Unions in the Twentieth Century (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991), 195. 56
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replaced with less modest short sleeves. All of which suggested a much more casual attire and work culture than Harvey could have ever imagined.19
Not willing to give up the Harvey Company‟s original understanding of fine dining, the company looked to reestablish its lost standards and reputation. The company turned to its managers to help find a solution and a way to retrain its workforce that might capture its former glory. And it was these concerns that in January 1948 inspired the St.
Louis Harvey House to set out to see who in the restaurant would be considered not just the best employee, but the ideal “Harvey Girl.” To do this the management created a highly-publicized competition to determine which girl reflected the characteristics reminiscent of the Harvey Company 1870s standards. Not only would the contest reward some of the girls working for the company, but they could also use the contest to retrain some of the skills and etiquette that had been lost.20
Overall, five characteristics that came to define the perfect “THE HARVEY
GIRL” were not only a reflection of Victorian America but also post-WWII gender conventions that stressed propriety and deference.21 All of which fit the managerial goals of a cooperative work force. For example, one‟s appearance had to be appropriate for white, middle-class customers that had long made up the Harvey House clientele. Thus first of all, a Harvey Girl would always be neat in dress with her grooming kept up. This included carefully-arranged hair, light makeup, clean sparkling teeth, daily bath and deodorant, manicured nails, clean hands, and of course a pleasant smile. Second, the
19 Poling-Kempes, 193-194. 20 Contest, box 1, folders 15-16, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff. 21 Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era (New York: Basic Books, 1988), 82. 57
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uniform would have the black bow tie, name badge, slip that is not showing, clean run- free stockings and clean, well-polished shoes. Third, Harvey Girls were always to be efficient. A Harvey Girl would pay attention to the customer‟s wants and needs. Fourth, a Harvey Girl would greet guest and workers in a friendly manner. Lastly, a Harvey Girl is courteous at all times. Along with this description a visual picture was added to help the girls see what the company wanted.22
Figure 5. Portrait of a Harvey Girl.23
The St. Louis Harvey House decided to let the employees decide on who made the best “Harvey Girl.” After a ballot was filled out it was placed in a locked box so no one would know who the others voted for before the final count. Prizes would be awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places. By encouraging all employees to participate, the
22 Contest, box 1, folders 15-16, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff. 23 Ibid. 58
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contest became a clever managerial tool designed to remind all employees of what was to be expected.24
When B.S. Harvey saw the notice of the contest he decided St. Louis had a great idea and attempted to greatly expand the contest. Harvey then sent a letter to others in the corporate office in hopes that other Harvey Houses would do the same thing. As an added idea Harvey thought the contest could not simply award local Harvey Girls but create a nation-wide competition for the best “Harvey Girl of the Year.” Harvey ended the letter by asking for suggestions.25 As a result, “Portrait of a Harvey Girl,” was created in March of 1948. This portrait contained the following description of the
Harvey Girl. First, the Harvey Girl is always courteous. Greeting her customers warmly, giving prompt and courteous service is a daily routine for the Harvey Girl. She is generous with smiles and “Thank You‟s.”26 All of which seemed to suggest that it was the Harvey Girl rather than the food that really mattered and that she would be the focus of management.
Coming out of the Second World War the Harvey Girl was to now maintain a wholesome image that made her not only an ideal employee but fit the demands of domesticity. In other words, it was not simply good service but marriage that was to be a
Harvey Girl‟s aspiration. Indeed, the Harvey Company suggested that if Harvey Girls would adhere to the policies set forth by management then they would still have the rewards of their predecessors and would easily find a spouse. For women, economic
24 Ibid. 25 Ibid. 26 Ibid. 59
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stability and societal approval was a result of marriage not a job.27 And thus the post-war
Harvey Girls should be more like their turn-of-the-century counterpart and thus the kind you marry. As if they were preparing for a date rather than work, once again the girls were to take special care of their appearance.28 Their hair had to be worn neatly especially since they had to use a hair net at all times. They had to wear appropriate shoes that were well polished. Makeup should be worn but quite conservatively. Plus, she could not perspire and effective deodorant needed to be applied daily.29 Just like the flight attendant, who soon would serve a traveling business class, the Harvey Girl was never to appear as though she were really at work.30
In addition, a Harvey Girl had to behave in a professional manner while on the job. Gum chewing was not allowed. You would not find her huddled in a group gossiping or talking loudly or holding long conversations with customers. While on the job a Harvey girl could not slouch on the counters, tables, or chairs. Plus, she should never be away from her station without permission. Efficiency was to be one of her most outstanding characteristics. Harvey Girls should know short cuts to efficient service and were constantly learning new ones. She sees what needs to be done and does it. She was to be familiar with her menu or merchandise. A Harvey girl should be dependable. She respected her job enough to notify her department when she was to be absent.
Cooperation between the Harvey Girl and other Harvey employees make her a valuable
27Kathleen M. Barry, Femininity in Flight: A History of Flight Attendants ( Durham: Duke University Press, 2007), 58. 28 Ibid, 49. 29 Contest, box 1, folders 15-16, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff. 30 Barry, 6. 60
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employee. She was to put forth her best effort to make the business run smoothly. A
Harvey Girl was a helpful person that answers questions willingly, gives timely suggestions, was kind to bewildered and handicapped customers, and considerate to women and children. She had the customer‟s best interest at heart and lets them know it.
Finally, she was to be honest. Honest not only with the merchandise, but honest with her time and with her fellow workers and customers.31 Added to this definition was the idea that a Harvey Girl was loyal to her employer and proud of the job she holds. For after all, she was a Harvey Girl.
Figure 6. The second portrait of a Harvey Girl.32
31 Contest, box 1, folders 15-16, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff. 32 Ibid. 61
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Two months after St. Louis held its competition Chicago announced in its newsletter that it would also hold a Harvey Girl Contest. Chicago took it one step further and held a contest for the Chicago Union Station (CUS) and the Dearborn Station. At the end of the contest a winner would be announced for the CUS Harvey Girl of 1948,
Dearborn Harvey Girl of 1948, and the CUS Harvey Salesgirl of 1948. Chicago, like St.
Louis hoped that all employees would cast their ballots. Each employee was to vote for the three women they felt best fit the qualifications that were set out. Ballots were to be turned in by the end of the month to the Department Head. The ballots were to be counted by employees that had nothing to do with the contest. The top five girls would be chosen and then a group of representatives from the department heads would judge the finalist based on the word portrait of a Harvey Girl. These votes would then be tallied and the winner announced.33
In all, the contest was quite popular. Sixty-five percent of the employees voted making the contest central to the work culture. To top it off, B.S. Harvey Sr. showed up at the luncheon honoring each of the women with a corsage and a personal note. After the success in St. Louis and Chicago the company began thinking about a similar competition involving all of the restaurants. By looking at the top winners in each restaurant, the hope was to find The Harvey Girl of the year.34
To be sure, many of the girls that were in the contest appreciated the attention they received. Consider this letter from the Kansas City winner Mollie Quinn: “…I also wish to express my thanks for the beautiful bracelet, the Gift-Bond, the fine luncheon and
33 Ibid. 34 Ibid. 62
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for the Honor of being chosen first place in the contest. This has left a deep sense of appreciation in me and is an honor of which I sincerely hope I deserve.”35 Daggett
Harvey responded to Quinn‟s letter letting her know, “You can be sure that your sense of appreciation is reciprocated and that we feel it is a privilege for us to be represented by such persons as you and the other winners.”36
Not everyone was happy, however. After the contest customers sent flowers to the lunch room waitresses that won the contest. But this sometimes created jealously and reinforced a sense of hierarchy in the ranks of restaurant employees. For example, some of the girls had their feelings hurt. Plus, the cashiers felt they were unduly over looked in the contest. The cashiers worked with the customers as well and they felt they should have also been allowed to enter the competition and potentially rewarded. Indeed some managers later objected to company-wide competition because they were afraid that the contest might cause hard feelings that would create an environment in which the winner would eventually quit undermining the whole point of the contest.37
After the contest in Kansas City a memo was sent out analyzing the positive and negative aspects of the contest. On the positive side, the employees were interested which meant they sought out the qualifications that defined a good employee. With the discussions that were taking place at the managerial level, it seemed clear that employees were not just embracing the contest but an education on Harvey policies. The employees
35 Mollie Quinn, to Daggett Harvey, 13 May 1948, transcript in the hand of Mollie Quinn, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff. 36 Daggett Harvey, to Mollie Quinn, 13 May 1948, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff. 37Contest, box 1, folders 15-16, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff. 63
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got to know each other better and thus cooperation also should help the success of the company. Most importantly, the customers became interested in a restaurant that was not just a relic of the past, but so nicely fit post-War notions of domesticity.38
However, the company-wide contest to select the “Harvey Girl of 1948” was postponed. First it seemed more time was needed to include the entire company. The
Harvey Corporation, under advisement of its restaurant managers also decided to wait until 1949 because the education and training during the war became quite lax. To get the results they wanted a re-education along with intensive training needed to take place at all levels. So, before the contest, lectures were to be given on how to improve the artistry of service and included everything from knowing your set-up and menu to customer approach and interaction.39
It was not just the contest that created attention. Thanks to a 1940s book and subsequent film entitled The Harvey Girls; the popular culture greatly assisted B.S.
Harvey just as he was looking to resurrect his business along with quasi-Victorian images of the past, something that had been a hallmark of the restaurant‟s reputation. The story line not only reminded employees why they should be grateful for their jobs, but it reminded customers of what they might be missing:
38Tyler May, xiii. 39 Contest, box 1, folders 15-16, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff. 64
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“Workin’ for Fred Harvey is the dandiest job there is. The best of food, the cleanest of livin’ accommodations, and you’re looked after like you was kids in a convent. Maybe a bit too much of that. I ain’t sayin’ but what the work ain’t hard , but you’ll get your tips and do good for yourselves. You’ll be treated like ladies and expected to act as such. Remember, the customer is always right, but you don’t have to take any freshness off’n nobody. There’s one other Harvey rule: The trains must be fed – morning, noon, or the middle of the night. That’s iron clad. Here’s some advice. Keep out of trouble.”40
The movie not only gave the Harvey Company publicity it projected an idealistic image of the original Harvey Girl who was loyal and could handle any situation. The
Harvey Girl from the 1870s was strong and put the company first working hard to make sure all customers were satisfied. The movie, The Harvey Girls, depicted the same type of girl. A good example comes in a scene with Harvey Girl Susan Bradley (Judy
Garland) and Ned Trent (John Hodiak). Trent, the owner of the Alhambra, a saloon, went to the Harvey House for dinner. Needless, to say Trent was not happy about the
Harvey House moving into town. Harvey Houses were known to open churches in town and the men tended to marry the Harvey Girls, therefore, Trent feared he would lose a considerable amount of business if the Harvey House succeeded in Sandrock. When
Trent ordered a steak from Bradley, she went to the kitchen and found out all the meat was missing along with the manager. Knowing exactly what was going on Bradley, the loyal company girl, left the restaurant taking two guns off the coat rack on her way out as she headed towards the Alhambra. After getting everyone‟s attention in the saloon,
Bradley declared, “I‟m from the Harvey House. Now we‟ve got a lot of hungry people over there, waiting to be served. And, I don‟t want to hurt anybody, honestly, I don‟t.
40 Samuel Hopkins Adams, The Harvey Girl (New York: Dell Publishing Company, 1942), 31. 65
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We are famous for our steaks and I‟m not going to let anybody stop me. Tell me where the meat is or I‟ll shoot.” After having shot a bottle out of the bartender‟s hand he quickly pointed her to the stolen goods. But the manager of the Harvey House also needed to be rescued for he was tied up in another room. After untying the manager, they were able to take the meat back to the restaurant and saved the day and provide a good
Harvey dinner for all their hungry customers. Just as telling as her loyalty was Bradley‟s etiquette. Always the polite Harvey Girl, Bradley did not forget as she left the saloon to say, “I just want to thank you all.”41
Of course, not all Harvey Girls identified with the images on the big screen or postwar gender roles.42 Regardless of their reaction, however, B.S. Harvey wanted all of his employees to see the film. In fact, he had the Harvey House mangers contact the local movie theaters to set up an agreement to allow each Fred Harvey employee to submit a Harvey House coupon to the theater as an admission ticket. Once the coupons have been accepted the Fred Harvey Company would reimburse the theaters. This was exactly the kind of free publicity the company was looking for and Harvey was not about to turn it down.43
Regardless of the attention being paid to the Harvey House in popular culture it was not enough to create the kind of increases in patronage needed to deal with competition. In the post WWII era, car and air travel were a greater threat that could not be ignored. President Dwight D. Eisenhower worked for better highways to cross the
41 George Sidney, The Harvey Girls, (California: Warner Brothers, 1945), motion picture. 42 Poling-Kempes, 103. 43 Contest, box 1, folders 15-16, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff 66
Texas Tech University, Brenna Stewart Dugan, December 2008 nation. Eisenhower‟s major push for increased roads stemmed from a fear of atomic attack on the nation. His theory was that with better highways evacuation would be quicker.44 Regardless of the reason for highway improvements, once better highways existed automobile travel increased.
Simultaneously, advances in aviation led to airlines offering passenger service.
Although they were not an immediate threat to the railroads, their presence altered railroad passenger travel. At first it seemed that trains may be able to compete. Air travel was more expensive and dangerous, but more important to the traveler they were unreliable. Weather conditions cancelled numerous flights as did mechanical failures. If that was not enough airsickness became common since planes flew through the weather instead of above it.45 The airlines‟ shortfalls allowed the railroad companies to join into an agreement with the airline companies to offer air-train service. When planes were grounded due either to mechanical issues, the weather, or nightfall, passengers boarded trains to continue their travels. This combination of services ultimately shed twenty hours of travel time on a transcontinental excursion.46
However, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway along with other railways wrongly believed passenger travel would increase after World War II. Preparing for an influx of passengers and train schedules, ATSF poured millions of dollars into new equipment, only the increase they expected never happened. Automobile ownership had increased and highways improved, not to mention the unpredictable popularity in
44 Tyler May, 151. 45 Barry, 14-15. 46 Bryant, 334-335. 67
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aviation.47 A decline in railroad passengers led to decreased patronage at the Harvey
Houses. Eventually the loss of business caused the Harvey Houses to systematically shut down.48
The post-World War Two era saw a shift not only in transportation patterns, but in the restaurant industry as a whole. The working and middle class began eating out more than ever, but they were choosing low-priced fast food over restaurants like the
Harvey House. To keep up with the population consumer demands, restaurants were being opened by the thousands all over the United States.49 Over the course of a century the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe went from a short-haul prairie line to one of the most famous passenger friendly companies in the nation. Even though the ATSF railroad had been known to provide deluxe equipment, fast schedules, delicious food, and courteous service it ended its passenger train service on May 2, 1971 after 103 years of reliability.50
In post war America, the Harvey Girl on and off the screen fit a domestic cold war ideology that captured what Fred Harvey himself originally wanted to see in his wait staff
- a girl who embraced middle-class propriety, knew her place and ultimately was the kind you married. Unfortunately, the Harvey Girl contest was in many ways an unsuccessful attempt to resurrect a business that seemed increasingly a part of a bygone era.
47 Ibid, 349. 48 James A. Cox. “How Good Food and Harvey „skirts‟ won the West,” Smithsonian, September 1987, 139. 49 Cobble, 193. 50 Bryant, 326-327. 68
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CHAPTER V
END OF THE LINE
We may live without poetry, music and art; We may live without conscience and live without heart; We may live without friends; we may live without books; But civilized man cannot live without cooks. He may live without books; what is knowledge but grieving? He may live without hope; what is hope but deceiving? He may live without love; what is passion but pining? But where is the man who can live without dining”1
These words written by Owen Meredith (the Earl of Lytton), who authored Lucile understood what Fred Harvey also believed; good food was not simply to be enjoyed it was a symbol of one‟s culture. Food is about more than tastes, it is often central to social events that provide pleasure and allow individuals to connect with the people around them.2 As the Harvey Houses pulled out of towns across the West they left vacant buildings and economic downfall. As years passed and travel by automobile and airplanes became more popular the areas that housed the railroads were increasingly neglected. Yet, without the railroad or Harvey Houses many of these towns would never even have been built in the first place. As many towns attempt to regain their economic clout and identity Harvey Girls played a central role yet again. Harvey Girls are well remembered not only by the passengers along the Santa Fe, but by the relatives, former
Harvey employees, railroaders and members of the local communities. Harvey Girls
1 Lenore Dils, Horny Toad Man (El Paso: Boots and Saddle Press, 1966), 71. 2 Donna R. Gabaccia, We Are What We Eat: Ethnic Food and the Making of Americans (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998), 231. 69
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connected with the people and so did the restaurants and train stations in which they worked. As the Houses fell into disrepair communities longed for the nostalgia associated with the famous Harvey Girls and this inspired public history projects and the historic preservation of the famous Harvey Houses. This final chapter looks at one particular town in West Texas, Slaton, as an example of the ways in which the memories of the Harvey Girls have helped save the structure that once housed the famous restaurant along with the memory of the man for whom the restaurant was named.3
Slaton is the most recent of Harvey Houses to be renovated and reopened, but it is not the only restaurant to be saved by its local community. Kansas has saved four of the
Harvey House buildings, but only one remains a restaurant. Kansas City Union Station has reopened a Harvey House Diner in their building, but Dodge City, Newton, and
Chanute renovated their Harvey House buildings into a theater, law office, and Safari
Museum. California has three Harvey Houses remaining. San Bernardino converted their Harvey House into county office space while the Barstow Harvey House currently holds the Route 66 Museum. In Needles, California‟s El Garces Harvey House is currently under renovations that began in 2007. Arizona has maintained three of their hotel resorts originally opened by Fred Harvey. El Tovar at the Grand Canyon, La
Posada in Winslow, and Fray Marcos in Williams offer luxurious rooms in the elaborately designed hotels that were opened along the Santa Fe line. Five Harvey
Houses have survived in New Mexico. The Santa Fe Railroad continues to own the
Harvey House in Clovis, New Mexico, but it is boarded up with overgrown ivy covering
3 Lesley Poling-Kempes, The Harvey Girls Women Who Opened The West (New York: Marlowe & Company, 1991), 209. 70
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it. All that survives in Gallup is a small section of the Harvey House that is being used as an Indian Cultural Center. Belen uses their building as a museum housing Santa Fe
Railroad and Fred Harvey memorabilia. La Fonda in Santa Fe still operates as a hotel while the Castaneda in Las Vegas, New Mexico is currently for sale.4 Oklahoma maintains three Harvey Houses today. The Guthrie and Hugo Harvey Houses function as restaurants. Meanwhile Waynoka‟s Harvey House is owned by the Waynoka Historical
Society who has spent 1.5 million dollars to renovate the Harvey House into an operational restaurant and museum.5
Texas Harvey Houses continue to serve three towns, Brownwood, Galveston, and
Slaton. Brownwood, Texas renovated their depot and Harvey House in the late 1990s.
The Harvey House section houses the Chamber of Commerce while the depot serves as a meeting and events center. Galveston‟s Harvey House went underwater as Hurricane Ike made landfall in September 2008 causing them to shut down their Railroad Museum for now. Slaton opened their Harvey House as a Bed and Breakfast in 2007 and with its celebration came memories of the town‟s beginnings.6
Before a Harvey House was ever established in Slaton, Texas, railroads first began stretching across the country, building division points along the way that founded small towns and communities. By 1904 the Santa Fe Railroad decided to construct tracks into Texas. Its lines were to run north and south and east and west. Division points were
4 Michael McMillan, comment on “The Slaton Harvey House,” Fred Harvey Discussion Group, comment posted on 28 October 2008, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fred_harvey/message/826. 5 Sandie Olson, comment on “The Slaton Harvey House,” Fred Harvey Discussion Group, comment posted on 28 October 2008, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fred_harvey/message/825. 6 Michael McMillan, comment on “The Slaton Harvey House,” Fred Harvey Discussion Group, comment posted on 28 October 2008, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fred_harvey/message/826. 71
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to be roughly a hundred miles apart which was considered one freight run. The Santa Fe
Railroad was then responsible in establishing the towns at the division points. One of these division points was just outside of Lubbock.7
Slaton was built as a “company” town with much controversy. As the Santa Fe
Railroad built across West Texas a division point was needed along the Llano Estacado.
People were excited about the railroad opening in Texas because the railroads would allow the South Plains access to the Gulf Coast and to the West. Lubbock was an established town that wanted the division point to stop there. The agreements were made and the division point was slated for Lubbock. The people in Lubbock preferred this because they did not want a new town so close that it would slow the development of
Lubbock or bring unwanted competition to the area. As Santa Fe officials continued to confer they decided the division point needed to be fifteen miles east of Lubbock. The new division point was decided on because of railroad operating needs. Slaton would be
110 miles from Clovis, New Mexico and 103 miles from Sweetwater, Texas, giving
Slaton the advantage over Lubbock. In 1911, the Santa Fe Railroad began selling plots in
Slaton and building the railroad station that included a $75,000 Harvey House.8
7 Slaton Story (Slaton, Texas: Slaton Museum Association, [1979]), 1. 8 Ralph W. Ater, “Early History Of The Santa Fe In Slaton Area,” The Slaton Slatonite, 20 August 1959, p. 1.
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Figure 7. Photograph of the railroad construction, 1912. Courtesy of Slaton Museum. Success for the railroads in the West would be actualized only if people settled in towns along the way. Therefore, the railroad had to look out for the settlers. The Santa
Fe owned land along the tracks and they sold the plots to populate the west. To bring people to the area, Santa Fe circulated advertisements with promises of ample water delivered via the railroad. One aspect of looking after the settlers was making sure the people could obtain food and water in the newly settled areas.9 The Santa Fe knew food was important to the people and they used Fred Harvey‟s restaurants as a selling point in their advertisements. The restaurant‟s importance in Slaton was also seen in the fact that the Harvey House was the second building to be constructed in Slaton by the Santa Fe
Railroad. When the ATSF began advertising the sale of Slaton land it listed five reasons for one to move to the area: location, advantages and improvements, 3,000 feet of business streets, a fine agricultural country, and what the company offers. Under
9 “Railroad Moved Settlers West in Boxcar-Coaches,” The Slaton Slatonite, 20 August 1959, p. 5. 73
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advantages and improvements the Fred Harvey Eating House was cited. The fact that the restaurant was already open was pointed out to the reader as well.10
Figure 8. Advertisement selling lots in Slaton.11
The Slaton Harvey House was a two story structure. The first floor could accommodate forty eight guests at a time around a horseshoe shaped counter. The first floor also contained a kitchen, bakery, newsstand, and gift shop. Fred Harvey‟s newsstands sold a large number of books, magazines, and newspapers. The newsstands were so successful that publishers began to judge their print orders off of the Harvey newsstand sales.12 The gift shop was to sell fine gifts, candies, Indian jewelry, and
10 The Slaton Slatonite, (Slaton, Texas), 23 January 1914. 11 Ibid. 12James David Henderson, “Meals By Fred Harvey” A Phenomenon of The American West (Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1967), 33.
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weavings. The second floor was the living quarters for the single employees along with the manager with his family.
Figure 9. Newstand in the Slaton Harvey House. Courtesy of Slaton Museum.
Slaton citizens, like the rest of the American West, moved on with their lives and the Harvey House became just an old structure down by the railroad tracks that was more or less forgotten. The fate of most Harvey Houses was abandonment or demolition when passenger travel declined after World War II.13 Prior to the 20th century eating outside of the home was rare. But the 1920s saw a tremendous shift when single girls, working outside of the home, made cafeterias, lunch counters, and sandwich shops popular. After
World War II larger numbers of married women began working outside of the home, causing a paradigm shift in food preparation to take place. To relieve the burden of cooking, fast-food and chain restaurants became a staple in working-class and middle
13 Ted J. Simon, “Trainload of Memories Slaton group lays tracks to restore Harvey House,” Lubbock Avalanche Journal, 19 December 1991, Neighbors, p. 2. 75
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income families.14 After the closing of the Slaton Harvey House in the 1940s Santa Fe renovated the building turning it into the passenger depot. The building remained in use as office space until the 1970s when the Slaton division point began to consolidate their offices.
By 1957 there were two Harvey Houses still in operation, one in Newton, Kansas and the other in Gallup, New Mexico. In May, the Newton, Kansas Harvey House announced it would be ringing the gong for the last time, and others feared the New
Mexico House would be doing the same soon. The Harvey Houses were from a bygone era that was falling victim to the modern dining train car and the speed of trains. As the sounds of the gongs were fading the nostalgia of the past was replacing the restaurants.15
The post-war era saw men and women postponing marriage, delaying childbirth, and having smaller families. These qualities led family dinners at home to decrease and a rise in restaurants predominately in the fast-food industry. Chain and franchised restaurants rose nationalizing and homogenizing American food choices. Literally, restaurant customers across the nation were being served similar meals. Where the
Harvey Houses were known for their fine fresh foods the restaurant chains that followed would not keep up with the Harvey standards. Fresh meats, fruits and vegetables were being replaced in restaurants with prepared frozen foods. Chefs were no longer needed as all one had to do to “cook” a meal was defrost, reheat, deep fry, and assemble. Unlike
14 Harvey Levenstein, Revolution at the Table: The Transformation of the American Diet (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 208. 15 Wichita Evening Eagle, (Wichita, Kansas), 1 May 1957. 76
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Fred Harvey who insisted on the best regardless of price, the new restaurants weighed convenience over nutrition and taste.16
As fast food and chain restaurants increased in numbers the remaining Harvey
House buildings were continuing to decline. In 1991, a wrecking crew was called out to tear down an old building in Slaton, Texas that was owned by the Santa Fe Railroad. A local resident happened to come upon the scene and asked what was going on. By this time, the demolition crew had ripped off the building‟s loading dock.17 The resident then went to the president of the local museum association, Almarine Childers, to report the destruction of the old Harvey House. Childers then contacted the mayor of Slaton, Don
Kendrick, and the city administrator, Jim Estes, to have the demolition stopped. The men called the Santa Fe railroad asking for the demolition to be stopped at least for a while so the situation could be looked into. Eventually work was done to have the building and land deeded to the city so the building could be restored.18
Mayor Don Kendrick helped save the Harvey House because, “We felt that since
Slaton was such as railroad town that this is a significant part of our community and our heritage. There was a feeling that we needed to save this building.”19 Once the Harvey
House was safe from demolition the Slaton Railroad Heritage Association (SRHA) was formed in 1991. The Slaton Railroad Heritage Association is a non-profit organization working to preserve and develop the Slaton Harvey House. After the organization of the
SRHA plans were made to turn the former restaurant into a living history museum. The
16 Levenstein, 208-209. 17Elizabeth Langston, “Bringing back part of history: Slaton to revive Harvey House site,” Lubbock Avalanche Journal, 31August 1996, Metro, p. 5. 18Simon, 2. 19 Langston, 5. 77
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hope was that if the association‟s plans were successful then the Harvey House could once again be a center of activity in the community as well as a reminder of the past and where the city began.20 A $1 million grant from the Texas Department of Transportation to the Slaton Harvey House assisted in the renovation.21
Reasons given to save the Harvey Houses in a community are as varied as the number of people working on the project. Sue Davis, the Slaton Railroad Heritage
Association Vice President looks at saving the Harvey House as a way to honor her father who was an engineer for Santa Fe Railway.22 Davis recalls going down to the tracks to see if anyone famous got off the train or to travel by train. “I can remember taking a trip to California as a child. It was very exciting that we could come down here, get on a train and go all the way to the West Coast, all the way to San Francisco.”23
During the years of the Slaton Harvey House restoration numerous articles were written on its progress to remind the community of the project as well as the ongoing fundraising. Reporters frequently called Rose Farschon, a Slaton Harvey Girl from the
1940s, when they needed an interview for their articles. Always trying to be the accommodating Harvey Girl, Rose would agree to the interview and once even posed in a replica of the Harvey uniform. When I asked about the uniform she wore for the newspaper I could tell by the look on her face she did not approve of the picture. “The only authentic thing is me,” Rose insisted. “I don‟t know who passed it off to Tony
Privett as a Fred Harvey. Well, it isn‟t, it had pleats in the back and it was open in the
20 Ray Westbrook, “Slaton heritage group makes plans to restore Harvey House.” Lubbock Avalanche Journal, 29 January 1995, Sec C, p.8. 21 Langston, 5. 22 Ibid. 23 Bill Hanna, “Storied Stopover,” Star-Telegram, 4 May 2003, State, p. 1. 78
Texas Tech University, Brenna Stewart Dugan, December 2008 back. You couldn‟t have worn just a blouse with it.” As Farschon continued to explain,
“they were so determined to have a picture.” The picture has been published at least twice and Farschon let the second reporter know, “Now, this is not a Fred Harvey costume. This is something we put together and it sorta resembles it.”24
After years of work and financial planning Slaton‟s dreams were realized in the fall of 2007 when the Slaton Harvey House opened as a Bed and Breakfast that could also serve as an events center. Farschon had said, “It was a pretty special place. I hope they get it right.”25 After a nights stay at the renovated Harvey House, Michael McMillan has this to write on his Fred Harvey chat room. “They have a beautifully restored Lunch
Room with nice paneling and light fixtures, and News Stand. There is a new, added elevator going upstairs, or you can take the original employee stairs with metal threads.
Next to the stairs and elevator is the B&B office, which is staffed when guests are present. There is also the kitchen are, and an unfinished rear storage area where supplies were once unloaded from railcars at a siding that came up to a loading door. That area will be fixed up eventually. There are modern restrooms downstairs for events held in the Lunch Room are and people there for a tour.”26 It seems they did get it right.
24 Rose Farschon, interview by author, 10 March 2003, Slaton, Texas, tape recording. 25 Hanna, 1. 26 Michael McMillan, comment on “The Slaton Harvey House,” Fred Harvey Discussion Group, comment posted on January 22, 2008, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fred_harvey/message/511. 79
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Figure 10. Slaton Harvey House Main Room, 2008. Courtesy of Slaton Railroad Heritage Association.
Figure 11. Slaton Harvey House Bed and Breakfast, 2008. Courtesy of Slaton Railroad Heritage Association. In April 2008, the Slaton Harvey House unveiled its Texas Historic Landmark
Marker. Tony Privett, a member of the Slaton Railroad Heritage Association, had this to say at the dedication, “The building has so much history for the community. Literally it is the most significant historical building in the community now. The great thing is it's serving its original function now.”27 Another charter member of the SRHA, Jim Davis had the following to say on the Harvey House dedication, "How do you describe
27Joshua Hull, “Historic Harvey House gets back on track in Slaton,” Lubbock Avalanche Journal, 13 April 2008, Local News, p. 1. 80
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something you dream about and dream about and dream about when it finally happens."28
The Slaton Harvey House is being promoted as a place to have reunions, weddings, meetings, parties, civic and social events. To assist those hosting events at the Harvey
House there is in-house event planning, floral, and catering. So far, community wide
Christmas events and Valentine dinners have been held in the former lunch room.29
Hoping that part of the Bed and Breakfast will eventually hold a museum full of
Fred Harvey memorabilia; the Slaton Harvey House takes donations from any collectors or private owners. During my interview with Farschon she shared the items she had saved as mementos of her time with the Harvey Company. At the time of the interview, she had plans to give all of it to the Slaton Harvey House. When she showed me an old menu, I asked if the menu came from her time at the Slaton Fred Harvey House. She answered, “Well, a no. It was given to me. I think someone snitched it. I also have a spoon and I didn‟t snitch either one, but I think somebody did. I do have them.”30
Suggesting she still carried the Fred Harvey standards and would never betray her loyalty even after all these years.
Farschon had several memories from her time at the Harvey House. By working the late shift Farschon had several experiences that other Harvey Girls would never have.
Like the time a local resident became drunk on corn whiskey then visited the Harvey
House. “He had this bottle of whiskey in his back pocket and he was very congenial. If you wanted a drink you could have a drink with him.” Of course, being the Harvey Girl
28 Ibid. 29 Harvey House of Slaton, Texas, “The Historic Harvey House is now a Bed and Breakfast, Event Center and Historic Santa Fe Landmark,” http://www.harveyhouseofslatontx.com. 30 Rose Farschon, interview by author, 10 March 2003, Slaton, Texas, tape recording. 81
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she did not partake. Another night another drunk customer placed an order for his favorite meal liver and bacon. As the cook was preparing the food, the customer told
Rose, “I have to be gone for a minute. I have to go to town and I‟ll be right back.” He proceeded to leave but what happened next still makes Farschon chuckle, “He got in the car. He just raced the motor like mad. Then he came back in. Like I said the fun part was the night.”31
During my interview with Rose Farschon I was told she hoped to live long enough to see the Harvey House finished. While she did see the Harvey House restored to its entire splendor she passed away less than a week before the dedication.32 Rose and many other Harvey Girls have passed on, but their legacy is remembered.
Figure 12. Renovated Slaton Harvey House. Courtesy of Slaton Railroad Heritage Association.
31 Ibid. 32 Hull, p.1. 82
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Armitage, Susan and Elizabeth Jameson, ed. The Women’s West. Norman, Oklahoma: Oklahoma University Press, 1984.
Barry, Kathleen M. Femininity in Flight: A History of Flight Attendants. Durham: Duke University Press, 2007. Bryant, Keith L. History of the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe Railway. New York: Macmillan, 1974. Reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1974.
Cobble, Dorothy Sue. Dishing It Out: Waitress and Their Unions in the Twentieth Century. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991. Dils, Lenore. Horny Toad Man. El Paso, Texas: Boots and Saddle Press, 1966. Foster, George H. and Peter C. Weiglin. The Harvey House Cookbook: Memories of Dining Along The Santa Fe Railroad. Atlanta: Longstreet Press, 1992. Gabaccia, Donna R. We Are What We Eat: Ethnic Food and the Making of Americans. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1998. Henderson, James David. Meals by Fred Harvey: A Phenomenon of The American West. Fort Worth, Texas: Texas Christian University Press, 1969. Hine, Robert V. and John Mack Faragher. Frontiers: A Short History of the American West. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007. Hopkins Adams, Samuel. The Harvey Girls. New York: Dell Publishing Company, 1942. Jameson, Elizabeth and Susan Armitage, ed. Writing the Range Race, Class, and Culture in the Women’s West. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997. Kessler-Harris, Alice. Out To Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. Klein, Naomi. No Logo. New York: Picador, 2000. Levenstein, Harvey. Revolution At The Table: The Transformation of the American Diet. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Morris, Juddi. The Harvey Girls: The Women Who Civilized the West. New York: Walker and Company, 1994.
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Owings, Alison. Hey, Waitress! The USA From the Other Side Of The Tray. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002. Peiss, Kathy. Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986. Poling-Kempes, Lesley. The Harvey Girls: Women Who Opened The West. New York: Paragon Press, 1989. Slaton’s Story. Slaton, Texas: Slaton Museum Association, 1979. Stansell, Christine. City of Women: Sex and Class in New York 1789-1860. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1982. Tyler May, Elaine. Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era. New York: Basic Books, 1988.
Articles Barton, R.J. “Bart.” “Dining Railway Style.” Journal of the West ( January 1992): 31-35. Beebe, Lucius. “Purveyor To The West.” American Heritage, February 1967, 28-32. Cox, James A. “How Good Food and Harvey “Skirts” Won The West.” Smithsonian, September 1987, 130-139. “Harvey Food Helped Build The West.” The Morrell Magazine, May 1946, 3-6. Kelly, Carla. “No More Beans: The Restaurants That Won The West.” American History Illustrated, October 1981, 42-47. Smart, Patrice. “Those Harvey Girls.” Railroad Magazine, December 1964, 13-16. Smith, Robert L. “Fred Harvey.” Motor Coach Age, August-September 1983, 4-34.
“Those were the Days.” Fred Harvey Yesterday and Today, August-September 1976, 4 Walston Latimer, Rosa. “The Harvey Girls.” Texas Highways, February 1992, 18-25.
White, Laura. “Harvey Girl.” Railroad Magazine, February 1944, 78-100.
White, Marion. “The Harvey Girls.” The Woman, September 1945, 1-4. Zavertnik, Kay. “What a Waitress Should Be from a Waitress Viewpoint.” Fred Harvey Yesterday and Today, August-September 1976, 2.
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Texas Tech University, Brenna Stewart Dugan, December 2008
Newspapers Ater, Ralph W. “Early History of the Santa Fe In Slaton Area.” The Slaton Slatonite, August 20, 1959. Glass, Ray. “A Slice of Slaton History: Restoration brings Harvey House back to life.” Lubbock Avalanche Journal, March 7, 2003. Hanna, Bill. “Storied Stopover.” Star-Telegram, May 4, 2003. Hull, Joshua. “Historic Harvey House gets back on track in Slaton.” Lubbock Avalanche Journal, April 13, 2008. Langton, Elizabeth. “Bringing back part of history.” Lubbock Avalanche Journal, August 31, 1996. Leavenworth Times, (Leavenworth, Kansas), May, 16, 1957. Privett, Tony. “Harvey House, Slaton History Intertwined.” The Slatonite, July 30, 1992. “Railroad Moved Settlers West In Boxer-Coaches.” The Slaton Slatonite, 20 August 1959, p.5. Simon, Ted J. “Trainload of Memories.” Lubbock Avalanche Journal, December 19, 1991. The Slaton Slatonite (Slaton, Texas), 19 May 1916. Westerbrook, Ray. “Slaton heritage group makes plans to restore Harvey House.” Lubbock Avalanche Journal, January 29, 1995. Wichita Evening Eagle, (Wichita, Kansas), 1 May 1957.
Oral Histories
Cranfill, Wendell. Interview by Brenna Stewart, tape recording, Lubbock, Texas, 26 April 2003. Farschon, Rose. Interview by Brenna Stewart, tape recording, Slaton, Texas, 10 March 2003. Johnson, Molly. Interview by Brenna Stewart, tape recording, Jenks, Oklahoma, 22 March 2003. Motion Picture Sidney, George. The Harvey Girls. (California: Warner Brothers, 1945), motion picture. 85
Texas Tech University, Brenna Stewart Dugan, December 2008
Archival Research
Advertisements, box 6, folders 124-126, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff.
Byron Harvey, box 3, folder 31, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff. Contest, box 1, folders 15-16, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff. Daggett Harvey, to Mollie Quinn, 13 May 1948, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff. Department of Promotions “Fred Harvey History, box 6, folder 120, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff.
Fred Harvey, box 6, box 124-126, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff.
“Gertrude K. Burton, to Readers Digest, 30 October 1940, copy, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff.
Harvey Girl Training Manual, box 6, folder 109, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff.
Menus, box 4, folder 98, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff.
Mollie Quinn, to Daggett Harvey, 13 May 1948, transcript in the hand of Mollie Quinn, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff.
Script “Contact Men,” box 5, folder 84, Fred Harvey Company Collection, 1900-1986, Special Collections and Archives Department, Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff.
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