Think of the Harvey House as the first true chain restaurant. Fred Harvey opened his first two restaurants along the Kansas Pacific Railroad in 1876 at Wallace, Kansas, and Hugo, Colorado. Even though they closed within a year, Harvey was convinced that a series of high quality, low priced restaurants next to railroad watering stops would be big money makers. In 1878 he entered into a non binding agreement to open Harvey House Restaurants along the Acheson, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railroad right of ways. By the time of his death in 1901 he had built and was operating a number of restaurants and hotels throughout the western United States along multiple rail roads. He left his business to his family who ran it until it was sold in 1968 to Amfac, Inc. At the time it was the 6th largest food retailer in the United States.
The Casa del Desierto in Barstow, California was built in 1911. The building is still there. It's the home of two museums, the Barstow Chamber of Commerce, and city government offices. I've been there, it's well maintained and well worth a stop for anyone driving the I-15 between L.A. and Vegas.
The caption on the back, "Casa del Desierto (House of the Desert), the Fred Harvey Hotel at Barstow, is built after the style of the Spanish renaissance, with walls of tapestry brick and gray stone trimmings, red tile roof and arcade balconies on both stories." The card, unused, was published by "Fred Harvey HOTELS-SHOPS-RESTAURANTS."
Fun fact, for anyone old enough to remember the blue plate special. The phrase comes form The Harvey House restaurants, which served dinners on blue china.
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