On our southwest road
trip, we stopped in Winslow Arizona. I wanted to spend the night in La Posada
hotel. I’ve been doing research on the Fred Harvey hotels and restaurants and wanted
to experience one first hand. La Posada was built in 1930 and designed by Mary
Colter. It was the last Harvey hotel to be built.
When the railroad
expanded across the country from East to West in the late 1800s, Fred Harvey
opened restaurants and hotels all along the Acheson, Topeka and Santa Fe train
routes. They were classy establishments with fine linen, china, silverware,
crystal, gourmet food and impeccable service. Fred Harvey died in 1901, but his
hospitality business was carried on by his family.
Harvey employed thousands
of young women from all parts of the country, and many from Europe, to serve in
his establishments. They were called “Harvey Girls.” In the development of our
nation, Fred Harvey is credited with bringing lots of eligible women out West,
where men drastically out-numbered women. Working in a Harvey hotel or
restaurant was a great opportunity for a young woman at a time when women had
few options for employment, travel and adventure. The western cowboys, shop
keepers, buffalo hunters, gamblers, ranchers, farmers, miners and even some
bandits were enchanted by these well-trained, sophisticated women.
Harvey
girls had to sign a contract to remain single and on the job for at least six
months. If they lasted that long, they were given a vacation and free travel on
the Santa Fe railroad to anywhere of their choosing. They lived in dormitories
with an eleven o’clock curfew. On Friday nights the hotel/restaurants sponsored
a town social, and this was the only time the young women were allowed to wear
street clothes in the hotels. It was also the only time the local men had a
chance to get acquainted with them. Very few women were employed for more than
a year or two. There was too great a need for women out West at the time.
We booked a room in the
historic hotel. The inside of the hotel was as beautiful as the exterior. They
took great care in keeping things in period. Many famous people stayed there
over the years, Einstein, Truman, Jane Russell, Spencer Tracy, Sinatra,
Roosevelt and Errol Flynn to name a few. Each room had a picture and biography
of the celebrity who slept there.
At the restaurant we ate
dishes from the original Harvey House menu like their corn and black bean soup.
The waitress instructed me as to how to eat it. “First take a bite of the corn
side, then the bean side, and after that you can eat them together.” I followed her guidance, and it was delicious.
On the morning we left
Winslow, I thought it would be cool to get my picture taken “standing on the
corner”, like in the Eagles song, “Take it Easy”. I didn’t have to look
very
hard to find a corner to stand on, because there is a sign on a corner in the
middle of town that reads “Standin' on the Corner” and there was a bevy of
couples, all in their sixties and beyond, taking each other’s pictures standing
next to the sign. The town of Winslow has
created a major tourist attraction out of the first hit single by the Eagles. There is even an annual "Standing on the Corner" festival. Originally
the song was written, but not completed, by Jackson Browne for his first
album. Glen Frey heard it, liked it and encouraged Jackson to finish
it. Glen wanted to record the song with his band, but months went by without progress.
Finally, Glen asked Jackson if he could finish the song for him. Jackson agreed
and the rest is rock & roll history. It is the first cut on the Eagles
first album and was their first hit single in May 1972. Jackson recorded it
also as his first cut on his second album “For Everyman”.
The morning was cold and
overcast and I had to wait my turn to get my picture taken. Next to the sign is
a statue of a young man with a guitar, his shoulder worn smooth and shiny from
all the tourists putting their arms around him. He does not resemble Jackson
Browne, but another statue not far away, of a long-haired hippy dude, does sort
of look like Glen Frey. Murals on the building behind depict the reflection in
a hotel window of a young woman driving by in a flatbed Ford and in an upstairs
window, a young man and woman are in an embrace. There is even a real flatbed
Ford pick-up strategically parked on the street in front. They went all out to
replicate the second verse of this early seventies’ song.
The woman running the
gift shop across the street told me that in the warmer weather there are people
from all over the country and around the world taking pictures and buying
mementoes. She said it’s a big deal for tourism and the Winslow economy. One
line out of a song, who’d of thought, but then again, baby boomers like myself
are nuts about our music.
Katie and I poked around the
gift shop for a while and then continued on our journey.
