The Civilizer
OF THE WEST
F
By John Wease
REDERICK HENRY HARVEY was born June 27, 1835. He immigrated to the United States from England with his parents in 1853 at age 17. He found a job scrubbing pots at the popular Smith and McNell’s Restaurant in New York City. He worked his way up through dishwasher, busboy, waiter, and line cook. He learned the restaurant business there. But, more importantly, he learned the importance of good service, fresh ingredients, and the handshake deal. He later moved to New Orleans and then to St. Louis where he worked in a jewelry store. He married in 1856. He started a café with a partner that was doing well until the Civil War began. The partner, a supporter of the Confederacy, headed south with all their money. Financially ruined, Fred began working for the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad which was later bought by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. Once again, he worked his way up the corporate ladder. One promotion included a transfer to Leavenworth, Kansas. In this position, he traveled extensively by rail. He was disappointed with the very poor choices of meals available to rail passengers at that time. Passengers had to scramble during the short stops the train made to take on fuel and water, to buy what they could find and hurry back to the train. In 1873, he opened two eating houses with a partner, Jasper “Jeff” Rice. The eating houses were 280 miles apart along the Kansas Pacific Railroad. Although the restaurants did well, that partnership failed as well. Fred then took over the twenty seat lunch counter upstairs at the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe station in Topeka, Kansas. The first thing he did was order new plates, linens, and flatware. And, of course, the food was made with the freshest of ingredients, and service was first class. The success of that one small lunch counter led to a handshake deal with the superintendent of the AT&SF to open a few eating houses along the railway. The railroad built the rent-free facilities and delivered fresh meat and produce in their Santa Fe Refrigerator Dispatch cars. The steam trains needed to stop every one hundred miles to take on fuel and water. By the late 1880s, a Fred Harvey dining facility was located at each one. At the time of Fred Harvey’s death, in 1901, there were forty-seven Harvey House Restaurants, fifteen hotels, and thirty dining cars serving his food. The railroad advertised “Fred Harvey food, all 24
January 2024
the way.” This was a play on their slogan “Santa Fe, all the way” that referred to the longest railway in the country. Fred Harvey is credited with creating the first restaurant chain. He also started the first chain of hotels. In reality, souvenir shops, book stores and newsstands could be included as well since all could be found at his facilities. His hotels offered fine dining to the middle class and upper-class travelers in dinner jacket required dining rooms. The elegant dining rooms were equipped with fine China dishes, highly polished silverware, and Irish linen napkins. More casual dining rooms featured large, horseshoe shaped counters that predated the iconic American diner. An 1880s menu listed a “blue plate special,” a daily special at a reduced price. Blue plate specials were widely known some thirty years later. Meals were organized to such a degree that hundreds of passengers could be served every twenty minutes. Fred Harvey is referred to by some as the founding father of the American service industry. His methods are studied to this day in programs of hotel and restaurant management, marketing, and advertising. He named his company simply “Fred Harvey.” This seemingly unimaginative name was a brilliant marketing strategy. After his death, his son, Ford Harvey, ran the company for much longer than Fred had.
PULSE PUBLICATIONS
