Fred Harvey’s own public relations office said that during the 1880s and 1890s, Fred Harvey’s unique restaurants and hotels, the Harvey Houses, opened one after another. They opened every 100 miles along the Santa Fe Railroad through Kansas, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. This was said to be necessary “to keep Western traffic from settling in one place where Fred Harvey served his incomparable meals.” Arizona soon had six Harvey Houses built along the tracks of the Santa Fe Railroad. Harvey Houses were built in the northern Arizona towns of Williams, Winslow, Ash Fork, Kingman, Seligman, and Grand Canyon Village. Harvey built these houses with Spanish style architecture and gave them names like Fray Marcos, La Posada, Escalante, Havasu, El Tovar, and Bright Angel. The Harvey Houses became the meeting place for travelers and townsfolk alike. Fred Harvey’s Harvey Houses made traveling by train somewhat more comfortable. They could be credited for opening America to Americans. Breakfast at a Harvey House cost 50 cents. For this amount the traveler received breakfast cereal or fruit, eggs on top of toast, a steak with hash browns, and a stack of six pancakes. Breakfast was completed with a piece of apple pie and coffee. Dinner at a Harvey House cost 75¢ and was always an amazing menu of the finest food to be found anywhere in the West. These marvelous dinners were served by people who would become a legend of the West—the Harvey Girls. Who were the Harvey Girls? Harvey Girls, classy young women from good homes of the East, came to work in the Harvey House restaurants. Fred Harvey ran newspaper ads all across the eastern United States that read: “Wanted: young women 18 to 30 years of age, of good character, attractive and intelligent, as waitresses in Harvey eating houses in the West. Good wages with room and meals furnished.” The Harvey Girls were young women who worked in the Harvey Houses of the American West. As a result of their efforts the job of waitressing became a respectable job for American women. They left the safety of their homes and often lives of poverty to earn their own living and enjoy the excitement and adventure of traveling. Chapter 11 • Arizona’s People  113