HARVEY HOUSES ON THE AIR
AN ANNUAL AMATEUR RADIO EVENT
Amateur Radio Special Event Stations on the air for one day each year from historic Harvey House Hotels and Eating Houses to celebrate their role in the development of our communities as well as the civilization and new blood the Harvey Girls brought.
HAVE LOTS OF FUN
ACTIVATE OR CONTACT HARVEY HOUSES ON THE AIR
Annually on the Second Saturday in September
1500 - 2300 UTC
EDT 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM CDT 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM MDT 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM PDT 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Just over half of the nearly 80 Harvey Houses are shown on this old postcard. There were Harvey Houses in Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico,Ohio, Oklahoma, and Texas.
“He kept the West in food and wives.”
Will Rogers about Fred Harvey
Fred Harvey (1835-1901) came from England when he was 15. After a variety of jobs and business ventures, in 1876 he struck a deal with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad to open eating houses along the railroad and soon extended this to hotels. Both the hotels and restaurants are called Harvey Houses. At the peak there were nearly 80 Harvey Houses plus many ‘News Stands’ which also sold souvenirs and snacks. Ample portions of good food, nice accommodations, cleanliness and cheerful service were a welcome relief for travelers before the advent of dining and Pullman cars. While most Harvey Houses were at ATSF stations, some were located at attractions near the railroad and later at other railroads’ stations. Harvey Houses continued to be opened and operated into the 1960’s.
Harvey Houses gained a status and business boost with the addition of the Harvey Girls. There were high standards for these 18 to 30 year old single ‘Girls’ who lived in supervised housing with curfews and were only allowed chaperoned visits with men. Their intensive training assured customers received great service by the Girls in their signature white and black dresses. These young ladies received a lot of attention from single men in the women scarce West which resulted in many of the Girls being ‘lost’ to marriage. Many western families proudly trace their lineage to one the 5,000 Harvey Girls.
HHOTA LINKS - pdf files
Harvey House history, information, lists, photos, maps, etc. LINKS
· Harvey Houses - caution - not all listed are HHs
· Fred Harvey Co - Wikipedia
· future link
CONTACT US AT vcara at qsl.net - - - - please put HHOTA in subject.