HARVEY HOUSE FEEDS THE WEST

-A A +A

In an effort to promote travel and tourism in the Southwest, the Santa Fe Railway contracted with the Fred Harvey Company to supply Harvey House dining services along its routes at principal watering stops. English immigrant Fred Harvey (1835–1901), who had a railroad and restaurant background, made an oral agreement in 1876 with Charlie Morse, superintendent of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, to “bring good food at reasonable prices in clean, elegant restaurants, to the traveling public throughout the Southwest.” The partnership ultimately built eight-four restaurants in Santa Fe depots, twenty-seven in Texas. The restaurants were staffed with resident managers and waitresses, the Harvey Girls (immortalized in the 1946 MGM musical of the same name starring Judy Garland), who lived in a private dormitory above. Recognizing that proper personnel were as important as the quality of food and drink, Fred Harvey recruited young women from beyond the immediate community to serve as waitresses. Some of the larger depots, such as that in Amarillo, included hotels. The Harvey House was frequently a local social center as well, often providing quality meals not otherwise available in town. In addition to the restaurants, souvenir shops, newsstands, and hotels on the Santa Fe lines, the Fred Harvey Company served passengers on the Kansas Pacific Railway, the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway, and the Terminal Railroad of St. Louis. Harvey operations in Texas were closed by 1933, as the Great Depression and increased automobile travel slowed railroad passenger service. The Fred Harvey Company continued independently in the hospitality business until 1965.—YOLITA SCHMIDT

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.
×

Data

  • Types:
    no metadata available
    Styles:
    no metadata available
    Materials:
    no metadata available

Citation

Gerald Moorhead et al., "HARVEY HOUSE FEEDS THE WEST", [, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/essays/TX-02-ART339.

Print Source

Buildings of Texas

Buildings of Texas: East, North Central, Panhandle and South Plains, and West, Gerald Moorhead and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2019, 339-339.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,