11/27/2022
Interesting read.
There are days when it really it a small world. Great story:
Jimmy Dunn
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Final Story:
About 23 years ago I sat down with a prominent Egyptologist on the Terrace of the Hotel Longchamps in Cairo for an interview. I've always admired Egyptologists. It's a difficult discipline where few rise to the level required to direct an important excavation, but Dr. Steve Harvey had done so. He was excavating a truly remarkable dig, a large pyramid belonging to Ahmose I dating to the New Kingdom at Abydos.
I value my acquaintance with a number of Egyptologists and continue to try to keep up with their work. Many of them are friends of mine on Facebook, including Steve.
Several years ago, I found out another interesting fact about him. He is one of the heirs of Fred Harvey, who founded the first restaurant chain in the United States. I enjoy all sorts of history, and this caught my attention. Since then, I've sort of been a fan of the chain known as Harvey House.
Fred Harvey developed the Harvey House lunchrooms, restaurants, souvenir shops, and hotels, which served rail passengers on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, the Gulf Colorado and Santa Fe Railway, the Kansas Pacific Railway, the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway, and the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis.
At the age of 15, Fred Harvey left his native England for the United States. Upon his arrival in New York City, Mr. Harvey began working in the restaurant business in New York. The Civil War was bad for restaurants, but good for the railroads, and Mr. Harvey made a career change. Over the next 20 years, Mr. Harvey moved ever westward and ever higher in railroad business, but never forgot the restaurant business. Traveling for the railroads over the time reinforced Mr. Harvey's view that improvement was needed in the food department.
Upon arrival in Kansas in 1870, Mr. Harvey met Charlie Morse, President of the fledgling Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway. For the next near century, Fred Harvey's company would bring good food at reasonable prices in clean, elegant restaurants, to the traveling public throughout the Southwest. They also brought civilization, community, and industry to the Wild West.
Only 15 years later, there were 17 Harvey Houses; at their peak, there were 84!
Harvey is also known for pioneering the art of commercial cultural tourism. His "Indian Detours" were meant to provide an authentic Native American experience by having actors stage a certain lifestyle in the desert. Fred Harvey's feats of marketing did not stop at the attraction either, as for tour guides, he used attractive women in outfits becoming their figures. This tactic was adapted from his restaurants, where Harvey Girls worked as waitresses.
Of course, Harvey Girls became considerably famous, inspiring a movie by that name in 1946 staring Judy Garland.
When Harvey died in 1901, his family inherited 45 restaurants and 20 dining cars in 12 states. During World War II, Harvey Houses opened again to serve soldiers as they traveled in troop trains across the U.S. By 1968, when it was sold to Amfac, Inc. (now Xanterra Parks and Resorts, as of 2002), the Fred Harvey Company was the sixth largest food retailer in the United States. It left behind a lasting legacy of good food, dedication to customers, decent treatment of employees, and preservation of local traditions.
There remains a few of the hotels and restaurants Fred built, and some such as the one in Slaton continue with the name, but the company is now long gone.
Still, the Harvey House in Slaton is probably the most historic building on the south plains, dating to 1912, and while today it's considered a bed and breakfast, it is unique in that it started out as a Harvey House and not a large house as many bed and breakfasts are.
The Harvey House in Slaton was a restaurant, built a year after Slaton was founded. It's notable that Slaton was basically created by the Santa Fe Railroad and it became the largest of it's divisions.
But it was almost demolished at one point, prior to many good people of Slaton stepping in to save and restore it. Tom Brunson tells us that, for years after it ceased business as a Harvey House, it served another purpose. It was the on duty reporting point for train crews.
Downstairs housed the Station Agent's office on the west side of the building and the Trainmaster's on the north side facing the rail yard. The Road Foreman of Engine's office was located upstairs as well as meeting rooms for formal investigations etc.
Back downstairs was the operator - telegrapher's office where train orders were filled out from the Train Dispatcher. The standard clock was also located on the opposite wall where time comparisons were made by the Conductor and Engineer and noted on the registration page noting how their watches compared to the second.
Directly across the hall from the operator's office was the Crew Clerk. He was responsible for the calling of crews, keeping the crewboard updated, which was a wall sized chalkboard, where a trainmen, engineer and fireman could see their current standings. He used white chalk that was kept in water to markup the board. It was faint until it dried, then it looked enameled. He'd use a wet cloth to wipe it down and start over before his shift ended and the next clerk came on duty.
On a partial wall was a bookshelf type apparatus where the were slots for crews would receive company mail. Usually that mail wasn't good news wanting an answer to a question from the Trainmaster or Road Foreman of Engines. There were also books that contained advertisements for assigned jobs on the territory for trainmen and engineers. In addition to that there were books that everyone had to check for Book of Rules updates, Trainmaster's instructions and Superintendent notices.
Then there was a small passageway where crews waited for trains to swap crews on the east side of the building. Lots of memories from those days...The Railroad was going to demolish the building but Almarine Childers was successful in getting it postponed and finally saved.
Indeed, now it is a nonprofit Museum that one can stay in, dedicated to the Harvey House Company and Fred Harvey specifically. It is the only Harvey House where one can stay overnight in Texas. The bedrooms that one can now stay in were actually for the Harvey Girls and the manager. There are only five guest rooms, each named for an Indian tribe.
I've really enjoyed learning about this place and particularly meeting the people involved, who seem so dedicated to it and the Railroad traditions in Slaton. There are lots of stories and I think a stayover would be worth it just for that.
For example, the basement. which is used for storage now, is a labyrinth of small rooms. It would take me a while just to get completely acquainted with it. However, the Harvey Girls used it to roller-skate, and I can just picture them zipping from room-to-room in some sort of circuit. They did it for exercise.
Earth and Air Photography at http://earthairphoto.com
By the way, these photos are better organized with captions and room names on my website at https://www.earthairphoto.com/harvey-house-slaton
