DID YOU KNOW?
One of 15 Harvey Hotels
Fred Harvey had long cemented its presence along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway in the region with fine hotels and restaurants. It was there when Route 66 was christened in 1926, that the Fred Harvey Company met “The Mother Road,” with every inch of the National Old Trails Road between Romeoville and Los Angeles, California, now becoming part of
he was even dead for a decade. During that time, foundations were being laid by his sons to ensure the longevity of the family business long into the future. That future included the birth of the automobile where more roads needed to be built which would bring more business to this area. But it was primarily in the southwest where Fred Harvey had its biggest presence, and that was because of its affiliation with the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway.
You will find that the early roads generally hugged the railroad tracks, taking advantage of corridors carved decades earlier by the railroads. One of the early transcontinental motor routes through those parts was the National Old Trails Road, which spanned from Baltimore to Los Angeles. Then it entered New Mexico from the north, winding its way through a gap in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains between Las Vegas and Santa Fe, and then down to Albuquerque, where it made a beeline for Los Angeles.
demand was such that within a few years he had opened several more restaurants at various Santa Fe Railroad depots. As his chain of Harvey House restaurants became famous for their appetizing cuisine, Harvey began establishing a series of clean, efficient hotels, and then a string of railroad dining cars.
In 1876, with transcontinental railroads well-established hauling freight and people long distances, Harvey partnered with the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway to open eating houses in Wallace, Kansas and Hugo, Colorado. It was the beginning of a lucrative service company that had no need to own property, as it wound up renting (sometimes for free) space in railroad depots, not just for food, but also for lodging and newsstands. He ultimately set in motion the deployment of thousands of women known simply as Harvey Girls, who helped “civilize the west one meal at a time,” ensuring speedy service of the company’s signature quality food.
Fred Harvey is now credited with being the first chain hotel, restaurant, and newsstand in the country. Those chains carried over well into the Route 66 era. The only problem is that Fred Harvey died at age 66 in 1901, missing the birth of Route 66 by 25 years. By the time of his death, his enterprises included 47 restaurants, 30 dining cars, and 15 hotels.
But it was Fred Harvey who unwittingly set the pace for early roadside cuisine and lodging along Route 66, because his dream was the blueprint for today’s hotels/motels and restaurants along highways. So successful and blurred were Fred Harvey, both the man and the company, that no one seemed to notice