Near a dusty stretch of train track on the outskirts of Barstow, California, the imposing Casa del Desiertoâ??or House of the Desertâ??stands silent, its arched colonnade emptied of the railroad passengers, restaurant diners, and overnight guests who once visited its elegant hotel. The forlorn red-brick façade no longer greets crowds of visitors headed west to the California coast or east to the Colorado mountains, interrupting their journey for a respite at this cosmopolitan oasis. In fact, of around 100 Harvey House restaurants and hotels that were once scattered across this vast expanse of American desert, only a handful are still standing today.
Fred Harvey was said to have â??civilized the Westâ? by bringing middle-class values to hardscrabble frontier towns, but his real accomplishments were more impressive: Harveyâ??s business model established the modern chain restaurant, created a major tourist market for Native American art, and gave opportunity to scores of young women escaping the confines of their Midwestern upbringings. In the late 19th century, Harvey Houses put many small towns on the map, providing sophisticated accommodations and magnificent public architecture that often became the locus of these communities, both culturally and economically. Through its promotion of the regionâ??s landscape, architecture, and Native American cultures, the company also built a lasting fantasy of the American Southwest.
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