Fred Harvey
While we're talking about train stations, a man by the name, Fred Harvey forged a partnership in 1876 with the railroads to open chains of hotels and restaurants along the railways, they continued to be built and operated through the 1940s, though Fred Harvey himself died in 1901.They became a civilizing force in the wild west. Food was served on china, and coats were required in the dining rooms.
It's thought that blue plate specials were started by the Fred Harvey company, seeing as they appeared on their menus as early as 1892 -- thirty years before they appear anyplace else. They were so named because they were served on blue patterned china.
Harvey Rooms and Hotels were often buildings of great beauty, designed by Mary Colter. They were clean, efficient, served good food, dished up by clean young women, imported from the east coast, paying them $17.50 a month with free room and board. These jobs were some of the first decent work for women who wanted to come west, including teachers and domestics.
In 1946, MGM released The Harvey Girls, a musical starring Judy Garland and Angela Lansbury, based on the novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams. In the sixties, until the mid-seventies, with train travel dwindling, the Fred Harvey organization made a go at roadside rest stops -- mounted on bridges above the Illinois Tollway. The company itself was sold in 1968.
posted by kuaptic. @ 5:08 AM
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