Starting in Kansas, Fred Harvey's iconic Harvey House was the first to set the standard for fine dining and hospitality across the rugged Southwest. In 1876, the first of Harvey's depot restaurants opened in Topeka, followed just a few years later by the first combination hotel and restaurant in Florence. Fred Harvey and the Harvey Girls introduced good food and manners to the land of Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp and raucous cattle drives. In her third book on the Harvey House legacy, author Rosa Walston Latimer goes back to where it all began in this history of hospitality from the Sunflower State.
Rosa Walston Latimer is a writer, independent bookstore owner, playwright and award-winning photographer. Inspired by her Harvey girl grandmother, this is Latimer's third book on the Harvey legacy. Her research has appeared in “Texas Highways” and was used in a staged play based on her grandmother's story. She is currently working on a book about historic hotels of Las Vegas, New Mexico, and has already begun researching her fourth book for the Harvey House series.