Harvey House Museum: Fascinating history in small-town New Mexico
Harvey House Museum offers peek at the heydays of railroad travel
Imagine yourself traveling across the early 20th century West by rail. You’re hungry for lunch. You step off the train to a dirty, smelly cafe with meager, overpriced food — and it’s not even ready before your train leaves the station.
That was the reality for travelers in the early 20th century. Consistency in dining was a fantasy. One restaurant might be delicious, with courteous and quick staff; another, dirty and unreliable.
Enter the genius of Fred Harvey, and welcome to the Harvey House Museum in Belen, New Mexico, which celebrates his legacy.
What we learned at Belen’s Harvey House Museum
I was unfamiliar with Harvey House, Harvey Girls or any part of this fascinating piece of history. But I noticed it on the map as I plotted our trek across New Mexico and thought it sounded like an interesting stop.
I love museums that help you understand today by tracing trends to the past. That was what our guided tour of Harvey House did. It’s worth a stop if you love small towns and hidden gem museums.
A brief history of the Harvey House
Fred Harvey was an English immigrant who started his American work-life washing dishes in a restaurant. Over time, he was struck by the inconsistency of railway cafes and proposed a new idea to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad — lunchrooms, hotels and eating houses along the railroad with uniform standards and experiences.
Harvey was given the exclusive right to operate these institutions and essentially created the first “chain” restaurant and hotel experience.
Harvey was exacting in his ways and made sure his restaurants and hotels served customers consistently and well.
The famous Harvey Girls
A key to Fred Harvey’s success was the formation of the Harvey Girls, a trained and well-paid group of women who worked at the Harvey House restaurants.
Although some of the rules for the Harvey Girls seem discriminatory now (they had to be single, they couldn’t wear makeup, they had a curfew, etc.), it’s also true that these women often found better pay and a better life through the training and experience of serving as a Harvey Girl.
The Harvey House Museum includes their dorm rooms and shows what their lives as both workers and as young women might have been like.
Make sure to include lunch on your visit
The Harvey House Museum also includes the Fred Harvey Whistle Stop Cafe, where you can get nostalgic dishes like homemade muffins, fresh baked desserts and a classic chicken salad. The long-time chef was in the kitchen cooking when we visited, and the whole museum smelled divine.
Make time for a stop in Belen
It was a lazy Wednesday afternoon during our visit, but we stopped by Belen’s Arts and Cultural District for a quick visit.
We found an amazing book store staffed by helpful and knowledgeable staff — just as you’d hope for in a homey small-town shop.
An art shop full of wonder
We also had fun browsing the rooms of the Belen Art League Gallery and Gift Shop. Paintings, jewelry and other pieces of art were in abundance. Of course, we left with some treasures, and were also charmed by the helpful, kind volunteer staffing the shop.
More small-town travel adventures
If you like small-town travel — dining, shopping, museums and history — check out the Small-town Travel section of my blog.
And for the best burgers in New Mexico (which, yes, just happen to be in small towns), check out this post: The best burgers in New Mexico where you’d least expect them.
