Harvey House Barstow

Harvey Houses were built out of the necessity to feed railroad passengers on their long journeys across the USA.  In the late 1800’s, trains didn’t have the ability to cook meals on board so the railroads built restaurants roughly 100 miles apart where passengers would disembark the trains to be fed and then continued their journey with a full stomach.

Fred Harvey began building his empire of restaurant-hotels after being awarded a contract by Santa Fe in 1878 and is credited with opening the first restaurant chain in the United States.  Most of the Harvey Houses existed along Santa Fe’s railroad network, mainly along its mainline between Chicago and California.  Harvey’s company was well-known for hiring young, single women from all over the country to work as waitresses and was the inspiration for the movie “The Harvey Girls” starring Judy Garland in 1946.

During the height of train travel popularity, roughly between the 1920’s and 1940’s, a passenger train stopped every 30 minutes at one of the eight platforms still visible in front of the Harvey House.  Just like a modern airport hub, passengers riding trains coming from points east, mainly from Chicago, would have to change trains at the Harvey House to continue their journey to destinations such as San Diego, San Francisco and Los Angeles.  Naturally, the same was true going the other direction.

Passengers entered the Harvey House through the main lobby and then chose to eat at one of the two dining rooms. The formal dining room, also known as the east-end ballroom, served breakfast, lunch and dinner. Back then, formal meant that men had to wear dinner jackets. If patrons did not have one, they could borrow one from a rack of jackets and then return it at the end of their meal. If you were not formally dressed, you could sit at a table but you wouldn’t get any service.

The second dining room was known as the west-end dining room. It was less formal and there was no jacket required. It had an enclosed, semi-horseshoe shaped lunch counter that seated 50 people.

Both dining rooms were served by and connected to one kitchen located directly behind the lobby. This kitchen made its own ice cream and many other treats that couldn’t be shipped in. It was a hive of activity as each dining room would typically serve about 150-200 people every 20 minutes.

Many well-known movie stars and celebrities passed through the Harvey House from 1920 until the beginning of the jet age in the 1950’s. When you visit the Harvey House, it’s fun to think about all of those famous people who walked on the same floors that you are now walking on.

In the early 1900’s, railroads developed kitchen and diner cars and many of the Harvey Houses were no longer needed. Casa Del Desierto stayed open, however, serving as an important train station because Barstow was a key junction for Santa Fe.

More…