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Historical
Marker TextSlaton
Harvey HouseThe
city of Slaton has historic
ties to the railroad. For decades
the site was ranchland until the Santa Fe Railway sought a location for a division
point to service trains. The Santa Fe bought the land in April 1911, naming the
townsite for rancher and banker O.L. Slaton. Passenger and freight service became
central to the economy, and the company built a passenger depot and Harvey House
the following year. Scottish immigrant Fred Harvey created the Harvey House chain
in 1876, partnering with the Santa Fe Railway, which built the restaurants and
provided space on their trains for food and supplies. Harvey provided the equipment,
management and hospitality staff, including hostesses known as Harvey Girls.
The Slaton Harvey House served efficient but elegant meals to 42 passengers at
a time around a horseshoe-shaped counter on the first floor, which also house
the kitchen, bakery, gift shop and manager’s office. The manager and his family
and the Harvey Girls roomed on the second floor. The Slaton Harvey House, a commercial
and social center, operated for thirty years, briefly reopening to serve troops
during World War II. The
building remained a passenger depot until 1969; the railroad later converted it
to a freight depot and operations center before vacating the property in the 1980s.
Slaton citizens coordinated the preservation and restoration of their landmark
building.
The two-story Mission Revival Slaton Harvey House features one-foot
thick concrete walls, an arcaded trackside pavilion with stepped parapet, overhanging
eaves with brackets, divided light windows and a flat upper story parapet decorated
with the Santa Fe Railway company symbol.
Recorded
Texas Historic Landmark – 2007 |
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Slaton Harvey House Historical Marker
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson, April 2009 | | |
