Harvey Houses of Kansas: Historic Hospitality from Topeka to Syracuse by Rosa Walston Latimer

Author:Rosa Walston Latimer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2015-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Bisonte gardener, Mr. Smith, with Paul Everett Parker Jr., son of the Harvey manager, on the grounds of the Harvey hotel, Hutchinson, Kansas, 1930. Courtesy of the Paul Everett Parker Jr. family.

In the summer of 1926, Fern Shoemaker Mohler needed a job to provide money for her return to McPherson College in McPherson, Kansas. She and some of her friends traveled thirty miles to Hutchinson to apply for waitressing jobs. These young women were simply looking for work. They were not looking for adventure or for husbands. Fern expressed in an article in a women’s magazine in the early 1990s that it was much later that she realized that she had been a part of the Fred Harvey narrative. “It was the best kind of job for a girl to get for the summer. We all knew we had to work to get back to school the next year.” None of the girls had waitressing experience, which ended up being a benefit. “They really preferred we not have experience so we could learn the way they did it.”

Fern and her friends worked hard for a dollar a day, and had they not had the benefit of free room and board, the job would not have been financially advantageous. “We each had to keep the silver for the places we served polished, glasses shining and use only properly washed and mended linens.” Fern’s assignment was in the lunchroom of the Bisonte. “We also made sandwiches so they would be available to train passengers who were in a hurry or wanted something to eat later. Often we were so busy there was no time to get something for ourselves to eat.” The college girls were expected to give quick, courteous service and serve the food in the Harvey way—always with a smile. “You had to work fast because the passengers would be in a hurry and they didn’t want to wait,” Fern said. “We worked eight hours a day six days a week, but many times the hours were in split shifts so more waitresses could be on duty during mealtimes. If we went to work or came home when it was dark, a Harvey bellhop escorted us. Our off-duty hours were spent in a dormitory in back of the hotel where a matron supervised our activities, and if we did go out, she made sure we were in before lights out.” Fern remembers the rule prohibiting Harvey Girls from dating Harvey employees or railroad men. “That was strictly forbidden, but isn’t it funny how many girls ended up marrying railroaders or bellhops?”

“The big excitement of each day was when the head red cap [bellhop] rang the brass gong and called: ‘Train time.’ The train conductor would take a head count of those who wanted to dine at the restaurant. He’d telegraph ahead the time of arrival and number of customers. We were always ready.”

She worked as a Harvey Girl at the Bisonte for two summers, 1926 and 1928. After completing

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