Harvey Girls

In 1883, Fred Harvey decided that he wanted an all female waitstaff at his restaurants, so he placed ads in eastern and mid-western newspapers advertising for young women between the ages of 18 and 30, single, attractive, intelligent and of good character.  He offered one year contracts, with a partial forfeiture of wages if they didn't make the whole year.  Also free housing, board, and uniforms.  Also a mandatory curfew of 10 P.M.  Pay $18 a week, throw in the free room, board, and uniforms, that was actually a fairly high wage, not just for women, but for anyone.  Too, I imagine it offered quite an adventure for young women in the 1880's.

Written on the back, "Harvey House girls Mom w/ little girl."  Obviously this photo was taken well after 1883, and is suspect those aren't the original;Fred Harvey uniform, but I'd bet they're  close.

In 1942, muck-raking journalist Samuel Hopkins Adams,  known for his exposes of corruption in government and business wrote a novel,"The Harvey Girls,"which portrayed the Harvey girls as the civilizers of the west.  I have no idea if that's true or not, but it is an interesting idea.  The movie with Judy Garland came out a few years latter, albeit as a musical.

Harvey House, Barstow, California

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.

We'uns At Westlake

The message is visable, but since it's sideways, "We'uns the two next the bank.. Taken at West Lake Park Los Angeles, Cal. Jan. 7.  Many thanks for the present comes in handy.  K. H. Gelleus, Ash Fork, Ariz."  It was mailed from Ash Fork on February 26, 1906 and made it to Miss Jesse Wilson in Caney, Kansas on the 28th of the same month.  I'm not sure the post office could make the same quick delivery today.

So, a few things.  It was actually Westlake Park, named for Dr. Henricus Wallace Westlake, a Canadian doctor who moved to L.A., was a successful physician, bought  and sold real estate, and was the president of a couple of no longer in existence companies.  He donated the land to the city for a park.  Today we would call it a wetland, but at the time it was considered a swamp, and a good place to dump garbage. It's name was changed to MacArthur Park after World War 2.  Yes, the same MacArthur Park of the weird, stoner song of the same name.

 Ash Fork is the self proclaimed flagstone capitol of the world.  I've been there.  It's in northern Arizona along one of the few remaining bits of old route 66, and I-40.  Truthfully, I have no real memory of the place, but I've driven the route.  Caney, Kansas is just a small town in the middle of the prairie.

I wasn't quite sure of the spelling of the Gelleus name, but after trying a few variations, I found it on Ancestry.com.  I wasn't willing to break out the credit card to do a detailed search, but in 1891, there was exactly one Gelleus family  in all of Great Britain.  They lived in London, and it's interesting to speculate that they ended up in northern Arizona, working at a flagstone quarry, or perhaps the Harvey House at the Ash Fork,  Santa Fe Station.

This card really shows how photographs travel.  The original photograph was taken in Los Angeles.  It was made into a postcard and mailed from Ash Fork, Arizona to Caney, Kansas,  I bought it at an antique store in Pasadena, in L.A. County.  How did it get back to California?