When trains made a station stop, hungry travelers were given just enough time to de-board, order food, and pay in advance for a meal. As the food was served, the train whistle was blown, forcing passengers to choose between missing a meal or missing the train. Both restaurant owner and train crew received a cut of the resulting revenue.
Postal agent Fred Harvey spent a lot of time riding the rails in Kansas and Missouri, and he was appalled. Even where blatant scams like this were not in practice, depot facilities, service, and food were substandard or worse. Harvey's efforts to right these wrongs resulted in what became the first chain restaurant in North America: Harvey House, with his first venue opening in 1876. By the early 1880s, primly attired "Harvey Girls" served reliably good meals to weary travelers in pleasant, well-kept surroundings, as Harvey Houses continued to blossom throughout the West and Midwest. But by the mid-20th century, it was a different story.
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