The Fred Harvey name will forever be associated with the high-quality restaurants, hotels, and resorts situated along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway in the American Southwest. The Fred Harvey Company surprised travelers, who were accustomed to "dingy beaneries" staffed with "rough waiters," by presenting attractive, courteous servers known as the Harvey Girls. Today many Harvey Houses serve as museums, offices, and civic centers throughout the Southwest. Only a few Harvey Houses remain as first-class hotels, and they are located at the Grand Canyon, in Winslow, Arizona, and in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
While whole books have been written about the Santa Fe Railway, the Harvey Girls, and even the Harvey House china, recipes, and menus, not one has been published about the Harvey Houses themselves. In this volume, author and professor of history at the University of New Mexico's Valencia campus Richard Melzer has compiled more than 180 rare historical photographs and other memorabilia to tell the unique story of the Harvey Houses. Dr. Melzer also serves as the president of the Historical Society of New Mexico and has been a longtime docent at the Harvey House Museum in his hometown of Belen, New Mexico.