On the Atchison Topeka & the Santa Fe

As a youngster so many years ago, I could easily follow along with the melody of Johnny Mercer’s Oscar winning song of 1946’s Judy Garland musical, ‘The Harvey Girls’. For those of us that were smitten with Dorothy from Kansas and her little dog Toto, Susan from Ohio and all of her singing cohorts were actually based on a group of brave and independent women that were largely responsible for bringing civilization to the west, the Harvey Girls.

The post civil war migration west involved two primary modes of transportation, wagon or railroad. If you chose the former, you were pretty much on your own as far as meals were concerned, Denny’s and McDonald’s were not to be until well into the next century. If you traveled by rail, there were no dining cars in the early 1870s and restaurants along the way were very seedy. Some establishments saved leftover food and served it to whoever was unlucky enough to be in the next group of diners. Conditions were deplorable to say the least. All of that was about to change along the Santa Fe railroad.

Fred Harvey opened his first eating establishment in Topeka, Kansas at the Santa Fe depot and office building on a trial basis. Within weeks it was serving to capacity crowds and the powers that be at the Santa Fe agreed that this experiment was a success. With the support and blessing of the Santa Fe, Harvey bought a rundown hotel on the line in Florence, Kansas and opened a second restaurant, this time with a hotel. Harvey spared no expense to make this endeavor first rate and in a very short time, word of mouth made the new Florence house’s food and accommodations famous.

Soon travelers were flocking to the Santa Fe as it was the only railroad that made sure that their passengers were served decent meals. The success of the Harvey Houses was determined by the passengers they brought to Santa Fe and were not expected to (and often times didn’t) show a profit. Harvey Houses began popping up all along the Santa Fe route, through Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and eventually into California. The last Harvey House restaurant was built in 1939 as part of the Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal and can be viewed as part of a tour sponsored by the LA Conservancy. All of these hungry passengers had precious few minutes to grab a bite while the locomotive was being serviced, watered and fueled.

What could Fred Harvey do to streamline the serving of meals to better accommodate the passengers?

“Wanted: Young women of good character, attractive and intelligent, 18 to 30. Experience not essential, will train.”

This ad was placed in eastern and Midwestern newspapers and for the next several decades, more than 100,000 young women answered the call. Thus was born the largest migration of eligible single women westward; the Ha rvey Girl.

Imagine being a twenty something woman in the late 19th century and your hope of leaving home was going off to college or getting married. Here was a chance for adventure, romance and excitement. This also had to be scary as you were heading into the untamed west, filled with Indians, outlaws and the unknown.

Harvey Girls were trained to be polite and efficient, to get passengers in, fed and out on a tight schedule. All of the girls stayed in a dorm with a house mother, were expected to keep their hair neat, uniforms cleaned and pressed at all times and be courteous and pleasant to all of their customers.

It has been said that Fred Harvey supplied the west with good food and fine wives. Although a Harvey Girl had to verbally promise to not marry for at least a year after beginning their employment, many of the girls married soon after they began working. Harvey philosophically accepted that attractive and intelligent women of good character wouldn’t last long on the prairie or in the desert without being snatched up by well to do miners or ranchers, making him the most prolific matchmaker of the 19th century.