A Fred Harvey Dinner Party Lecture, book launch and Harvey House dinner

THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT

The New Mexico History Museum and La Fonda Hotel, a former Harvey House, host the launch of award-winning journalist Stephen Fried’s book, Appetite for America, with a lecture and historic dinner  on Sunday, April 11, 2010. The event begins in the History Museum Auditorium with a 4 p.m. lecture by Fried, followed by a 6 p.m. dinner at La Fonda, which will whip up “Chicken Lucrecio,” among other delicacies from Harvey menus.

Seating is limited for both events. Tickets include a signed copy of Appetite for America (Bantam/Random House, 2010). The cost for the lecture is $50; the lecture with the dinner costs $95. Sponsorship tickets cost $200 and include preference seating at the lecture and dinner, as well as a listing on the event poster. A limited number of a reduced-cost rooms at La Fonda are also available the evening of the event.

To purchase tickets to the event, go to either of the History Museum’s shops, call (505) 982-9543, or log onto https://www.museumfoundation.org/HarveyHouse.

For La Fonda’s room reservations, call (800) 523-5002, ext. 1, or send an e-mail to www.lafondasantafe.com/email-group.html; mention the “Harvey/NM History Museum event” in the subject line.

Appetite for America is the story of Fred Harvey, who came to the United States from England in the 1850s as a penniless teenager, worked for saloons and the railroads and, at the age of 40, had a brilliant idea that changed America. His trackside eatery in Topeka, Kansas, grew into a powerful family business that forever changed the way Americans eat, drink, sleep, travel and spend leisure time.

Fred Harvey ended up building a revolutionary company feeding train passengers along the upstart Santa Fe railroad. With his son, he expanded into the first national chain of restaurants, hotels and bookstores from Chicago to California – even into the Grand Canyon. His beloved “Harvey Girls” were some of the first working women in America, later inspiring an Oscar-winning movie starring Judy Garland. His firm introduced the country to Native American arts and culture and “Santa Fe Style.”

Stephen Fried brings a fresh eye to America’s expansion into the Wild West of Bat Masterson and Billy the Kid, following the country and the company as they grew up together through the early days of trains, autos and planes. The restaurant/hotels that Harvey and his equally brilliant son, Ford, built would be enjoyed by princes and presidents, as well as countless ordinary travelers who simply wanted a travel experience grand enough to match the scenery.

In 1881, Fred Harvey began arranging for tourists to visit Santa Fe from his eating house at the depot in Lamy. In the late 1890s, his company began displaying and selling Native arts and crafts, starting with its restaurant in Gallup, but most visibly in Albuquerque’s Alvarado Hotel, built in 1902. The hotel’s sales area, designed by a young architect named Mary Colter, had a look that came to be known as “Santa Fe Style.” Colter worked with famed architect John Gaw Meem on expanding La Fonda from 1924-30 and, in 1949, designed the hotel’s lounge, using Spanish and Indian designs.

In 1915, Harvey worked with the Santa Fe community, including Museum of New Mexico founder Edgar Hewett and his protégé, Jesse Nusbaum, to create a 10-acre, full-scale Pueblo for the Panama-California Exposition in San Diego. Among those who lived at the exhibit was a young Maria Martinez, who would later gain fame for her San Ildefonso pottery.

Historic documents show that an inn, or fonda, has long stood on the southeastern corner of the Santa Fe Plaza. During the 19th century, La Fonda became the preferred destination of trappers, soldiers, gold seekers, gamblers and politicians. Through the Civil War, railroad expansion and New Mexico statehood in 1912, the old adobe structure changed hands and names several times but remained a Santa Fe landmark. The Harvey company purchased it 1926. Debuting in 1929, it offered the nation’s first version of cultural tourism: “Indian Detours” that carried tourists to nearby pueblos in touring vehicles. An exhibit on the History Museum’s mezzanine level pays homage to the Harvey era.

Businessman Sam Ballen purchased La Fonda in 1968; his family has continued his legacy of combining historic preservation with modern amenities.

Fried’s insights into the Harvey empire include how the company managed to foster an early “foodie” generation in some of the most remote locales; how Harvey’s granddaughter saw and nurtured the talents of a 9-year-old Hopi named Fred Kabotie, who became a premier Native artist; how pre-publication orders for his newsstands and bookshops affected national bestseller lists.

For more on Fred Harvey’s impact on New Mexico and the American West, go to http://media.museumofnewmexico.org/press_releases.php?action=detail&releaseID=71. For more on La Fonda’s history, go to http://www.lafondasantafe.com/about/history.html