Fred Harvey (entrepreneur)

Fred Harvey
Born
Frederick Henry Harvey

(1835-06-27)June 27, 1835
London, England, United Kingdom
DiedFebruary 9, 1901(1901-02-09) (aged 65)
Leavenworth, Leavenworth County, Kansas, US

Frederick Henry Harvey (June 27, 1835 – February 9, 1901) was an entrepreneur who developed the Harvey House lunch rooms, restaurants, souvenir shops, and hotels, which served rail passengers on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, the Gulf Colorado and Santa Fe Railway, the Kansas Pacific Railway, the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway, and the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis.

As an innovative restaurateur and marketer, Fred Harvey is credited with creating the first restaurant chain in the United States. He was also a leader in promoting tourism in the American Southwest in the late 19th century. Fred Harvey and his employees successfully brought new higher standards of both civility and dining to a region widely regarded in the era as "the Wild West." He created a legacy which was continued by his sons and remained in the family until the death of a grandson in 1965.[1]

Despite the decline of passenger train patronage in the United States in the 20th century with the advent of the automobile, portions of the Fred Harvey Company have continued to operate since 1968 as part of a larger hospitality industry conglomerate.[2]

  1. ^ "Milestones: Jun. 18, 1965". Time. June 18, 1965. Archived from the original on April 23, 2008.
  2. ^ "Our Fred Harvey Legacy | Xanterra Parks & Resorts, Inc". Xanterra.com. Archived from the original on 2013-05-25. Retrieved 2014-06-10.