A Harvey House Home page
Hotels, Lunchrooms, Restaurants in the Old West
Information updated September 9, 2009
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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. Travelling 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 travelling 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! |
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This page is my effort to collect as much information about the Fred Harvey Company and the Harvey Houses as exists on the Web. I'd like the site to be a clearinghouse of information about the Harvey Houses, with a section on each surviving Harvey House including photographs and a short essay on each. Finally, I'd like this site to be linked to other Harvey sites to encourage further restoration, rehabilitation and recyclng for new uses of these fine old buildings. If you know of an appropriate site, write me. |
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Harvey
Houses in the Southwest |
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