In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been presenting these Fred Harvey menus in alphabetical order of the restaurant names, not in the order in which the facilities opened or how far they were from the Santa Fe Railway. With this … Continue reading
Category Archives: Santa Fe
The Painted Desert Inn, located in the Petrified Forest National Monument (now a national park), is another example of Fred Harvey moving away from its roots serving rail travelers and towards serving auto travelers. The inn was located close to … Continue reading
In an effort to keep its restaurant mix current with the times, Fred Harvey began operating the Old Spinning Wheel, a popular restaurant in Hinsdale, a suburb of Chicago, in 1954. The photo on the cover of this menu doesn’t … Continue reading
Completed in 1939, Los Angeles Union Station is known as the “last of the great railway stations.” It is also the last station to be built with a Fred Harvey restaurant. This menu’s cover photo is credited to Leo L. … Continue reading
Designed by Colorado architect Isaac Rapp in what became known as the Pueblo Revival style and opened in 1922, the La Fonda (which means “the inn” in Spanish) helped inspire the city of Santa Fe to pass a 1957 ordinance … Continue reading
Fred Harvey had restaurants in Chicago’s Dearborn Station (which served Santa Fe, Wabash, and several other railroads), Union Station (which served Burlington, Milwaukee Road, Pennsylvania, and several other railroads), and the Bowl & Bottle Restaurant on the top floor of … Continue reading
In the mid-1950s, Fred Harvey introduced a series of nine menus cross-advertising its restaurant chain. We’ve already seen a 1958 dinner menu used at Albuquerque’s Alvarado Hotel that featured Grand Canyon National Park on the cover. This menu in turn … Continue reading
Fred Harvey issued several menus with patriotic themes during World War II, including menus helping people identify Army, Navy, and Marine Corps insignia. This one shows officer stripes from ensign to admiral and sailor insignia from boatswain to radio-electrician. Click … Continue reading
As the number of trains operated by Santa Fe and other railroads shrank, the number of hotels and restaurants operated by Fred Harvey also shrank. An ad in yesterday’s 1956 timetable lists ten hotels and restaurants along the Santa Fe … Continue reading
With the disappearance of the Scout in 1953 and the California Limited in 1954, most of the trains on Santa Fe’s timetable were streamlined. A major exception was the Grand Canyon, which had heavyweight sleeping cars and other heavyweight equipment … Continue reading