Harvey House Slaton
The Santa Fe railway created Slaton, and the Harvey House was one of the first buildings constructed in the new city on Railway Ave just next to the railway tracks. It was originally created as a restaurant, with room to also house the staff. Most of those rooms have now been converted to a bed and breakfast.
Though the Historic Harvey House Slaton is not really so much broken up in physical sections, it serves three main functions. It is a bed and breakfast, a museum, and an event venue. Here, one can spend the night in a museum, and do it in complete comfort, while admiring museum displays dispersed throughout the building. And it’s perfectly set up for events, with even a large, well-equipped kitchen.
Website & Booking
https://www.slatonharveyhouse.com/
Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/SlatonHarveyHouse
Phone Number
(806) 828-5900
Email
slatonharveyhouse@gmail.com
Address
400 Railroad Ave, Slaton, TX, United States, Texas
Hours
Monday CLOSED
Tuesday 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Wednesday 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Thursday 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Friday 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Saturday CLOSED
Sunday CLOSED
The Harvey House Slaton has five distinct rooms available for rent. There is also a common room for guests to lounge and sometimes watch trains pass.
MORE
The main downstairs lobby is often used as an event venue, hosting many different types of functions. There is also a kitchen and dinning tables available.
MORE
All of Harvey House Slaton is really a museum, but there are also specific displays of artifacts in cases and around the hotel. There are even some in guest rooms!
MORE
Gallery of External Photographs
Western side of the Historic Slaton Harvey House
Western side of the Historic Slaton Harvey House
Closer view of the West Side of the Slaton Harvey House
Closer view of the West Side of the Harvey House in Slaton, Texas
Parking lot entrance to the Harvey House
Parking lot entrance to the Harvey House in Slaton, Texas
train wagon and the northern terrace of the Historic Harvey House
View of a train wagon and the northern terrace of the Historic Harvey House in Slaton, Texas
terrace of the northern exterior of the Harvey House
View of the terrace of the northern exterior of the Harvey House
terrace of the northern exterior of the Harvey House
View down the terrace of the northern exterior of the Harvey House in Slaton, Texas
historic caboose and eastern side of the Harvey House
View of the historic caboose and eastern side of the Harvey House in Slaton, Texas
Western exterior side of the historic Harvey House
View of the Western exterior side of the historic Harvey House in Slaton, Texas
Second Story of the Historic Harvey House in Slaton, Texas
View of the Second Story of the Harvey House in Slaton, Texas
Daylight photo of the exterior northern side of the Harvey House
Daylight photo of the exterior northern side of the Harvey House
Northern and Eastern sides of the Harvey House
A view of the Northern and Eastern sides of the Harvey House in Slaton, Texas
Photo of the exterior Western Side of the Harvey House
Photo of the exterior Western Side of the Harvey House, Slaton, Texas
About the Harvey House and its History
The Origin of Harvey House
Fred Harvey developed the Harvey House lunchrooms, 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.
At the age of 15, Fred Harvey left his native England for the United States. Upon his arrival in New York City, Mr. Harvey began working in the restaurant business in New York. The Civil War was bad for restaurants but good for the railroads, and Mr. Harvey made a career change. Over the next 20 years, Mr. Harvey moved ever westward and ever higher in the railroad business, but never forgot the restaurant business. Traveling for the railroads over time reinforced Mr. Harvey’s view that improvement was needed in the food department.
Upon arrival in Kansas in 1870, Mr. Harvey met Charlie Morse, President of the fledgling Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway. For the next near century, Fred Harvey’s company would bring good food at reasonable prices in clean, elegant restaurants, to the traveling public throughout the Southwest. They also brought civilization, community, and industry to the Wild West.
Only 15 years later, there were 17 Harvey Houses; at their peak, there were 84!
Cultural Tourism
Harvey is also known for pioneering the art of commercial cultural tourism. His “Indian Detours” were meant to provide an authentic Native American experience by having actors stage a certain lifestyle in the desert. Fred Harvey’s feats of marketing did not stop at the attraction either, as for tour guides, he used attractive women in outfits becoming their figures. This tactic was adapted from his restaurants, where Harvey Girls worked as waitresses.
Harvey Girls
Of course, Harvey Girl became considerably famous, inspiring a movie by that name in 1946 starring Judy Garland.
When Harvey died in 1901, his family inherited 45 restaurants and 20 dining cars in 12 states. During World War II, Harvey Houses opened again to serve soldiers as they traveled in troop trains across the U.S. By 1968, when it was sold to Amfac, Inc. (now Xanterra Parks and Resorts, as of 2002), the Fred Harvey Company was the sixth largest food retailer in the United States. It left behind a lasting legacy of good food, dedication to customers, decent treatment of employees, and preservation of local traditions.
Harvey Houses Today
There remain a few of the hotels and restaurants Fred built, and some such as the one in Slaton continue with the name, but the company is now long gone.
Still, the Harvey House in Slaton is probably the most historic building on the south plains, dating to 1912, and while today it’s considered a bed and breakfast, it is unique in that it started as a Harvey House and not a large house as many bed and breakfasts are.
The Harvey House in Slaton was a restaurant, built a year after Slaton was founded. Notably, Slaton was created by the Santa Fe Railroad and it became the largest of its divisions.
But it was almost demolished at one point before many good people of Slaton stepped in to save and restore it. Tom Brunson tells us that, for years after it ceased business as a Harvey House, it served another purpose. It was the on-duty reporting point for train crews.
The building in History
Downstairs housed the Station Agent’s office on the west side of the building and the Trainmaster’s on the north side facing the rail yard. The Road Foreman of Engine’s office was located upstairs as well as meeting rooms for formal investigations etc.
Back downstairs was the operator-telegrapher’s office where train orders were filled out by the Train Dispatcher. The standard clock was also located on the opposite wall where time comparisons were made by the Conductor and Engineer and noted on the registration page noting how their watches compared to the second.
Directly across the hall from the operator’s office was the Crew Clerk. He was responsible for the calling of crews and keeping the crew board updated, which was a wall-sized chalkboard, where trainmen, engineer, and fireman could see their current standings. He used white chalk that was kept in water to mark up the board. It was faint until it dried, then it looked enameled. He’d use a wet cloth to wipe it down and start over before his shift ended and the next clerk came on duty.
On a partial wall was a bookshelf-type apparatus where there were slots for crews would receive company mail. Usually, that mail wasn’t good news wanting an answer to a question from the Trainmaster or Road Foreman of Engines. Some books contained advertisements for assigned jobs on the territory for trainmen and engineers. In addition to that, there were books that everyone had to check for Book of Rules updates, the Trainmaster’s instructions, and Superintendent notices.
Then there was a small passageway where crews waited for trains to swap crews on the east side of the building. Lots of memories from those days…The Railroad was going to demolish the building but Almarine Childers was successful in getting it postponed and finally saved.
The Revival of the Harvey House
Indeed, now it is a nonprofit Museum that one can stay in, dedicated to the Harvey House Company and Fred Harvey specifically. It is the only Harvey House where one can stay overnight in Texas. The bedrooms that one can now stay in were actually for the Harvey Girls and the manager. There are only five guest rooms, each named for an Indian tribe.
I’ve enjoyed learning about this place and particularly meeting the people involved, who seem so dedicated to it and the Railroad traditions in Slaton. There are lots of stories and I think a stayover would be worth it just for that.
For example, the basement. which is used for storage now, is a labyrinth of small rooms. It would take me a while just to get completely acquainted with it. However, the Harvey Girls used it to roller-skate, and I can just picture them zipping from room to room in some sort of circuit. They did it for exercise.