The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad constructed a two-story dining hall in Lakin in 1876 west of John O’Loughlin’s trading post near present-day Hamilton Street. The wooden structure was built at a cost of little more than $5,000, and announcements of the eating house’s opening appeared in papers across the state in May of that year.
About that same time, Fred Harvey struck a deal with Santa Fe superintendent Charlie Morse to take over a lunchroom on the second floor of the Topeka depot. Harvey got the space rent-free. In addition, the Santa Fe covered all the utilities and provided free transportation for Harvey’s eating house provisions and employees. As landlord, the railroad also covered the major equipment expenses, but food, labor and any upgrades were Harvey’s responsibilities. Harvey hired Guy Potter, a friend and former proprietor of the Planter’s House livery stable at Leavenworth, to run the lunchroom. The venture proved successful for both Harvey and the railroad, and thus began a chain of events that would ultimately earn Harvey the distinction as creator of America’s first restaurant chain.
By the end of 1876, Guy Potter had made his way to Lakin and was managing the railroad’s eating house which was often referred to as the Lakin House. Potter had a reputation for being good-natured and hospitable, and for serving square meals. “No one need go hungry who patronizes him, and we should judge that it was pretty well-known from the number that register with him,” proclaimed a Kansas editor who ate there in 1877. Potter and Harvey remained friends, and when the Potters’ 19-year-old daughter, Frankie, passed away that summer, her remains were taken back to Leavenworth and the funeral held at the Harvey home.
In January of 1878, Topeka’s Daily Commonwealth reported that Harvey had entered into the hotel business at Florence, Ks. Both the hotel and restaurant were upgraded. A top chef was brought in, and a revised menu featuring fish and local game cooked European-style was created. The tables were set with Irish linens, china and stemware from London, and silver plates from Sheffield. Matthew Fisher was hired to manage the establishment. Like Potter, Fisher had also previously been with the Planter’s House where he served as steward of what was considered one of the finest hotels in the west. Florence’s Harvey House quickly became so successful that its rooms were constantly sold out.
In March of 1878, the Leavenworth Times reported that Harvey was the new proprietor of Lakin’s eating house. Guy Potter and his wife were still managing the facility and providing service “seasoned with smiles and hearty good humor.” Although Lakin’s depot hotel was not as extravagant as the one at Florence, excellent service, imported linens and consistently good fresh food were always on the menu. “The best place to eat and sleep in the Wild West,” the hotel quickly became Harvey’s home away from home.
It wasn’t long before Mr. Fisher was called up to manage Lakin’s eating house while Potter eventually became manager of Harvey’s cattle ranch at Granada, Colo. Among other employees in Lakin’s eating house were Florence and Charles Beauman, Harvey’s niece and nephew from England. In November of 1878, Carrie E. Davies and her two children arrived from Chicago to make their home at the hotel with her then-husband and chef, Samuel Phillips, who had moved to Lakin earlier. When the family moved to their claim west of Lakin, Carrie ordered a dozen trees, part cottonwood and part elm. When she received them, the ground was so hard at her homestead that it was impossible to dig holes, but manager Fisher offered to buy the trees. They were then planted in front of the eating house around a fountain. The water supply was sufficient to keep the elms alive, but the cottonwoods died.
Because this was early on in Harvey’s career, the dining hall was not yet being referred to as a Harvey House in the papers. By August of 1879, rumors were circulating that the railroad was going to move the eating station. The dining hall was moved in December 1880 to Sargent (Coolidge) which became the division point of the A,T&SF in 1881. This same Harvey House was later moved to Syracuse where it was destroyed by fire in 1906.
There are no known pictures of the eating house when it was at Lakin. Mrs. Davies’s elms served as the only visible evidence of its location for years. Davies once wrote, “As I look at those trees with their strong bodies and lovely leaves, I think how fittingly they represent the early settlers. Storms of life may come, winds of affliction may blow, the scorching suns of adversity may shine but through it all, the old settlers rejoice in the rainbow promise and receive the rain that causes sweet memories to be ever green and refreshing.”
By 1962, only one elm remained. When the tree died, part of the elm was brought to the museum where it is on display in the annex.
Sources: A,T& SF Railroad Annual Report for the year ending December 31, 1876; May 17, 1876 Harvey County News; Feb. 5, 1871 June 21, 1877, Aug. 1, 1877 and March 7, 1878 Leavenworth Times; May 27, 1879 Dodge City Globe; Aug. 12, 1879 Lakin Eagle; Dec. 19, 1876 and Jan.3, 1878 The Daily Commonwealth; June 8, 1888 Hutchinson News; Appetite for America by Stephen Fried; History of Kearny County Vol. 1, and museum archives.