KTWU's Sunflower Journeys 2002: 1507A - The Harvey House
Produced by Scott Williams
And how would one describe the quality food of that era? Mark Bureman: Usually bad. Usually hasty. And often in the case of several of those stories of the time, the food would be served just as the train was getting ready to pull out of the station. Narrator: There were no dining cars in that era. As the trains stopped to take on fuel, passengers had as little as 10 minutes to fight their way into small, makeshift eating establishments. If the food wasn't eaten, some disreputable owners would sell the food more than once to the next unsuspecting round of passengers. Narrator: One of the railroad travelers of that era was Fred Harvey. He was born in London and immigrated to the United States at the age of 15. He worked in various restaurants in New York and St. Louis before landing in Leavenworth. Mark Bureman: Fred ended up here as a ticket agent for the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad and later moved on to others but he ended up here after living in St. Louis. The civil war ruined the restaurant business he was in, so he looked for a place that was less conflicted during the civil war era. Neva Robinson: Fred Harvey traveled on the railroad. He worked in a baggage car, or the mail car, and he determined that meals on the railroad were just very bad. And he determined... he had been in the restaurant business when he first came to this country. And he decided that he would approach the railroad and see if they would allow, or go in partners with him on a restaurant along this line. Narrator: Fred Harvey's Leavenworth house stands today. From here he built a business that expanded across the country.
Narrator: Drawing upon his English background, Fred wanted to find a better way to feed passengers, and to serve food of a higher quality He approached the management of the Santa Fa Railroad and they let him build a restaurant in the upstairs of the Topeka depot. But the business didn't stop there. The next location for the Harvey business was Florence, Kansas where Fred Harvey's restaurant opened in the Clifton Hotel. Neva Robinson: This railroad came to Florence in 1871. And they agreed they didn't have the money right then. But they agreed it was a good idea and if he wanted to start then they would buy into it with him after they got it started. And they had this agreement with a hand shake and that's where it went from there. Narrator: There was more to the Harvey business than simply serving food. Fred Harvey brought culture to the expanding West, and a touch of the English class he grew up with. Narrator: The Harvey House Museum in Florence has, or course, the usual displays of serving dishes and menus used in Harvey establishments. But upon special request, they will open their doors to groups who want experience an actual taste of a Harvey House meal. Neva Robinson: We don't serve a lot of meals. We don't have a restaurant license so we do server to special guests just by the occasions that we are allowed to do. Narrator: Local volunteers "dress" the part, and open the occasion with a narrative explaining the Harvey experience. Judy Mills, Museum Volunteer: And he felt like there had to be a better method. And of course, back then, trains only stopped for fuel, so, to load for coal and to take on water. And so, they didn't care whether there were meals or not. The idea was to get across the country as fast as they could.
Neva Robinson: Our dinners are served by Harvey Girls in their Harvey Girl costumes. And we serve a five course meal based on menus from Fred Harvey's days. And we try to make it extra special fancy because Fred Harvey's wife went and bought fancy linens and fancy china and we try to make it very special. To begin with we serve drinks and we put a relishtray on, an appitiser, and we serve our salad and then theose plates are removed and we serve our main course dinner. We serve roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, aspargus in season wihh cheese sauce, cole slaw, fresh homemade roles and charolote of peach for desert. With a dabble of whipped cream.
Mark Bureman: He was very maticuliosu about the food's appearance, the table settings. He varied the menue for conditions so that in hot places int he desert you would get cool fruits and thigns to temp your appitite. he would serve people fresh water fish who were returning from the Pacific because he thought they would be tired of salt water fish. And he offered blue point oysters and things that people weren't used to getting in the middle of the country at train stations. Mark Bureman: One of the things that ti was always said, that Harvey not only brought good food to the restaurant, but he brought a lot of wives to the west and so a lot of the Harvey girls ended up settling down on teh railroad towns as the new wives of the local residents. These girls brought some wholesomeness to the frontier.
This transcript is from KTWU's Sunflower Journeys 2002 season. A production of: |
