Now You See It, Now You Don't!
TellzAll's Subject for November is Harvey Girls
Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century and much of the twentieth century, many people who wanted to travel long distances chose to travel by train. Depending on how far you wanted to travel, a train trip could take several hours or even a few days to complete. While you were on the train, you had few options for food. Many people chose to pack sandwiches and other snacks to bring on the trip with them. Sometimes when a train stopped at a station, young men sold fruit, sandwiches, and other items to the passengers. Usually, these stops were scheduled to take a very short amount of time, so passengers did not have the opportunity to search out food at restaurants that were further away.
In the years following the American Civil War, a man named Fred Harvey came up with the idea of starting a restaurant at a train station that could quickly and efficiently serve hot meals to train passengers. Harvey negotiated a deal with the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway to open a number of restaurants along the railroad’s routes in the American Southwest. The first restaurant opened in the 1870s, but the company grew rapidly. Eventually there were a total of 84 Harvey House Restaurants, located primarily in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.
When the railway company added dining cars in the 1890s, Harvey provided food service for the dining cars as well. The Harvey Restaurants drew more passengers to the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, making the arrangement beneficial for both companies. The Harvey House Company continued to operate until it was purchased by Amfac Corporation in 1968, although the number of restaurants had diminished significantly in the years following World War II.
The young women who worked in the Harvey House restaurants were known as Harvey Girls. The Harvey Girls were instrumental in the company’s success. They provided the legendary service that earned the restaurants’ their very positive reputation.
Harvey offered women good wages for the late nineteenth century. In addition to those wages, the young women also received free room and board, and the company provided their uniforms. The company hired women between the ages of eighteen and thirty years old. The Harvey House restaurants offered these young women opportunities that they rarely had otherwise. Very few occupations were open to women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, outside of factory work, domestic service, or teaching. Most young women expected to marry at a young age, but work as a Harvey Girl offered another option. The Harvey Girls were able to travel to a part of the country that they had never seen before. They could create their own savings for the future or send money back to support their families who lived in the East. Many of these young women chose to stay in the West even after they no longer worked for the Harvey chain, often marrying local men and raising families.
Actress and singer Judy Garland, probably most famous for her role as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, starred as a Harvey Girl in a movie by the same name in 1946.
