Web posted
Monday, March 17, 2008
Harvey House brings back memories of railroad days
By FOSS FARRAR
Traveler Staff Writer
reporter@arkcity.net
FLORENCE -- The Doyle Mercantile store in this town on the Cottonwood River is named for an Irishman known as the first settler here.
Visitors from Arkansas City on Saturday stopped at the store on their way to the historic Harvey House restaurant and museum, the prized tourist site in the town.
Store owner Judy Mills told the 12 members of the Arkansas City Historical Society the story of Patrick Doyle, who was born in Carlow, Ireland, and emigrated to America in 1848 when he was 32 years old.
Like many other Harvey Houses that opened along the old Santa Fe Railroad line, the former Harvey House restaurant in Florence served weary rail travelers at turn of the last century.
Mills is president of the Florence Historical Society and often gives tours of the old Harvey House restaurant and museum. But on Saturday, she was tending the store.
She and her husband now live in the elegant limestone house just south of town that Doyle, known as first settler in Marion County, built in 1882.
The Harvey House experience took the Ark City day-trippers back in time. Some were reminded of the former Harvey House in Ark City, that also operated in the early 1900s.
In 1850, Fred Harvey came to this country from England at age 16 and got the only job he could find, on the railroad, said our Harvey House hostess, Sarah Cope.
Harvey came up with the somewhat revolutionary idea of having women serve fine meals to weary railroad travelers along the Santa Fe line. He opened the first Harvey eating house in Topeka in the early 1870s. Later, he opened the first Harvey House hotel in Florence, Cope said.
As she served a dinner of roast beef and mashed potatoes to the Ark City guests, Cope was dressed as a Harvey Girl of old, wearing one of several uniform styles they wore.
She noted that before Fred Harvey acquired the Harvey House in Florence, it had been a hotel built in 1875.
Today the Harvey House in Florence is only a third as large as it once was. Years ago, the building was divided into three sections, each of which were moved to different areas of town. The other two sections eventually were lost, she said.
"Harvey girls worked 12 hours a day," Cope said. "They were 18 to 30 years old and could not be married or have children. And they had to have a good moral life."
Historians and journalists called Fred Harvey "civilizer" of the American West, according to "The Harvey girls: Women who Opened the West," a book by Lesley Poling-Kempes.
The Harvey House in Florence operated there until 1900. Later it became a boarding house.
In 1970 the local historical society acquired it and began serving meals there, Mills said.
Five years ago, the society started extensive renovation of the house, re-doing carpeting and walls to give it a "vintage" setting for diners, Mills said.
The Ark City visitors said they enjoyed being served a home-cooked meal of roast beef and mashed potatoes, with sugared fruit and peach cobbler for dessert.
"I loved it; it was a wonderful day," said Terry Eaton, vice president of the Ark City Historical Society.
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