The Gallup (N.M.) Independent has a interview with 92-year-old Mary T. Montoya, who became a Harvey Girl at one of Gallup’s Harvey Houses beginning in the 1930s.
Here’s the interesting part:
The nationwide decline of rail travel led to the decline of the Harvey Houses, including Gallup’s. According to his recently published book “Fred Harvey Houses of the Southwest, author Richard Melzer writes that with the advent of Route 66 and the rise in automobile ownership, “Harvey Houses literally faced the wrong direction, toward the tracks rather than towards the roads that best served modern motorists.”
That was the case in Gallup, Montoya agreed, where not enough Route 66 travelers made it through the front doors of El Navajo. After working at the Harvey House for so many years, Montoya said El Navajo had become a second home to her. It was hard to see it close and even more difficult when much of the building was demolished. “Part of my life was gone,” she said. “It was very sad.”
Route 66 hastened the decline of the Harvey Houses, and the interstates in turn hastened the decline of Route 66. Now, preservationists are trying to keep the remnants of both around for future generations.