Recent Reads:

Meals by Fred Harvey : a phenomenon of the American West, by James David Henderson

Since I have a few relatives with the same surname, who lived in the same general area at the same general time that Mr. Harvey was starting his chain of restaurants, I had idly wondered whether there might be a family connection to the man who history credits with bringing both edible food and marriagable single women (the famous Harvey Girl waitresses) to the Western frontier. Unfortunately, what biographical information there was in this short book pretty well nixed that idea. It was an interesting read anyway; if I ever decide to build a western-themed model railroad module, a Harvey House restaurant would be an interesting item to include. (If you look closely at this photo, the Slaton Harvey House appears to have received coal by railcar, and according to the book, Harvey frequently had refrigerator cars of produce and meat routed to his restaurants, adding some local freight switching operations to the mandatory passenger-train stops.)