Any Harvey Houses Left Post A-Day?

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Rafi

Rafi

Conductor
Joined
Oct 19, 2005
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1,223
Location
Baltimore, MD (primary); Culpeper, VA; Washington,
I was visiting the California State Railroad Museum last week (fantastic museum, by the way, and this is coming from a serious B&O Railroad Museum devotee) and ended up picking up a railroad cuisine cookbook. Fred Harvey Company recipes, as one might imagine, comprise a substantial chunk of the content, and it piqued my curiosity about the Harvey Houses in general. Since my family is pretty much east coast-rooted, my knowledge base about the Harvey Houses is pretty limited, although I'm trying to read up as best I can. Still I've got a few questions that I'm hoping some of you might have some answers to...

1). Were there any Harvey Houses open on A-Day in 1971? If so, did Amtrak coordinate service with them?

2). Are there any Harvey Houses still open providing food service?

3). What was the atmosphere like? I get the impression it was kind of like (or perhaps the model for) Howard Johnson's with the hotel and restaurant, which was sort of Denny's/Friendly's-ish food/service. Is that about right? Sort of like a diner with a HoJo flair?

4). Anyone have any good Harvey House stories?

5). Any good sites I should put on my "to-visit" list?

Many thanks!

Rafi
 
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Rafi said:
2). Are there any Harvey Houses still open providing food service?
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It's no longer a Harvey House, and it wasn't one originally either, but La Fonda in Santa Fe is an elegant hotel and restaurant well worth a visit. The present building was "built in 1922 on the site of the previous inns [since 1607]. In 1925 it was acquired by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, which leased it to Fred Harvey. From 1926 to 1968, La Fonda was one of the Harvey Houses, a renowned chain of fine hotels. Since 1968, La Fonda has been locally owned and operated and has continued a tradition of warm hospitality, excellent service and modern amenities while maintaining its historic integrity and architectural authenticity."

I haven't stayed there, but lunch was excellent. But I have no idea how much it's changed since it ceased being a Harvey House.

When traveling east from Santa Fe on the SWC, my car attendant pointed out a grand old Harvey House building at one of the not-far-east-of-Lamy stations, on the north side of the tracks. She said it was where the movie The Harvey Girls with Judy Garland was filmed.
 
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Rafi, did any specific recipe in the cookbook catch your eye? I thought about picking up a copy of the cookbook, but I was worried it would be too antiquated for modern dining.

Of course, the company that purchased the Fred Harvey Co. owns the Grand Canyon Railway. I don't think Harvey Houses along railroads made it to A-Day. According to Wikipedia, FHC's relationship with the Santa Fe Railroad ended when FHC was sold to another company in 1968.

It's Wikipedia, so YMMV.
 
Slightly off topic, but the Seligman Harvey House building was just recently demolished. A happy example is the one in Barstow, which was recently remodeled and now serves as an office/museum building.
 
RTOlson said:
Rafi, did any specific recipe in the cookbook catch your eye? I thought about picking up a copy of the cookbook, but I was worried it would be too antiquated for modern dining.
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Well, the book I picked up is "Dining by Rail," by James D. Porterfield. They did have a Harvey House-only cookbook there as well (I believe it was this one), but since I was really after recipes from the B&O, C&O, N&W, Pennsy, NYC, NH, and Southern (railroads of significance to my family), I opted for the Porterfield book, obviously (and it's fantastic). And I have to say, the author did a fantastic job of "porting" the recipes into modern day form, meaning they're portioned for 2-8 servings (instead of 30!), they give household ingredient alternatives when you don't feel like or have the resources to make something completely from scratch, etc etc. There's one Harvey recipe I'm planning so far: Chicken Maciel, which sounds great. Basically a juicy chicken casserole with shredded swiss cheese melted on top. It's portioned for 8 servings, so it should make great take-to-work leftovers for the two of us. The book also has a good selection of Pullman recipes in addition to selections from just about every railroad I could think to throw at it. Good book.

So to answer your question much faster, this particular book has updated the recipes to bring them out of antiquation, namely by fixing the serving portions (and consequently making sure the changes to measurements result in the same finished product), updating the ingredients (and identifying missing ingredients many railroad chefs would intentionally leave out of their recipe cards), and giving some narration on how to prepare the dishes where that information may have been a "secret" back in the day.

-Rafi
 
The reopened restaurant in Kansas City Terminal was formerly a Harvey House. Some great pictures on the wall of the Harvey girls serving customers. The milk shakes are great. I believe the Harvey House in Las Vegas, NM is still standing but derelict. Read about Mary Coulter - the architect who designed some of these buildings.
 
The Harvey House in Las Vegas, NM is still standing (just to the right of the current train station--the name escapes me). From what I've read, only a small portion is used as a bar. The rest is vacant and no plans to restore or renovate at this time. A very impressive building.

Dan

Edit -- looks like Palmland beat me to the punch! :) :)
 
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Maybe not a Harvey House still in existence, per se, and not in a train station, but the Mughal Gardens Restaurant at 920 North Charles was once the Baltimore Harvey House until at least the mid-80's.

Might make for a convenient dinner stop for ya just to see what traces and vestiges of the Harvey heritage remain on the property.
 
There is a Harvey House in Belen, NM - about 20 miles S of Albuquerque at the Southern terminal of the Railrunner (but on the other side of the tracks and down a ways). They have a small model railroad club that meets there and a small museum/quilting club. I think there are plans to do a full up restoration. This house is adjacent to the BNSF Belen yard and really could function as its orginal intent (lots of cross country engineers swap out in Belen). I snuck upstairs once (the doors were unlocked) and was very impressed. Looked like it was brand new, but someone put a pause on it's ageing process about 50 years ago. Other than having communal showers and relatively small rooms (most were probably not much larger than 8 x 10 or so), there's no reason this House can't serve Railroaders.
 
The Metropolitan said:
Maybe not a Harvey House still in existence, per se, and not in a train station, but the Mughal Gardens Restaurant at 920 North Charles was once the Baltimore Harvey House until at least the mid-80's.
Might make for a convenient dinner stop for ya just to see what traces and vestiges of the Harvey heritage remain on the property.
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Whoa... are you kidding me?? Mughal was a Harvey House?? Wow... How did you happen to know that? I've never been in the place, but perhaps we'll go tonight after I get off the MARC train at BAL.

Rafi
 
wayman said:
When traveling east from Santa Fe on the SWC, my car attendant pointed out a grand old Harvey House building at one of the not-far-east-of-Lamy stations, on the north side of the tracks. She said it was where the movie The Harvey Girls with Judy Garland was filmed.
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I thought it was burned down (uptrack from Lamy station, according to the historical plaque).

San Bernardino station is the one.

Las Vegas, NM is correct. Bar is still opened, but rest of them are vacant. It's a very impressive building, esp. with water fountain.

Belen is correct too, it's a railroad musuem (hobby).

Here's the info on Harvey Houses.
 
Rafi said:
The Metropolitan said:
Maybe not a Harvey House still in existence, per se, and not in a train station, but the Mughal Gardens Restaurant at 920 North Charles was once the Baltimore Harvey House until at least the mid-80's.
Might make for a convenient dinner stop for ya just to see what traces and vestiges of the Harvey heritage remain on the property.
Click to expand...
Whoa... are you kidding me?? Mughal was a Harvey House?? Wow... How did you happen to know that? I've never been in the place, but perhaps we'll go tonight after I get off the MARC train at BAL.

Rafi
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As a youngster in the early 80s, I just remember panning through the Sun's dining guide and being intrigued by the name and it stuck with me. Never knew a lick about the railroad connection, just remembered the name, and don't think I ever knew where it was.

Of course a Google Search brought it all into focus:

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navc...st%2e+baltimore

Note the ebay auction, where you can get a postcard of the place in its prior incarnation. Also, somewhat dated reviews that mention that much of the decor in the current restaurant is a holdover from the Harvey House days.

Bon Apetit!
 
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