Chairman's Greeting
Welcome to the National Fred Harvey Museum web site. Our museum will be located in the Harvey family's former residence in Leavenworth, Kansas.
Our goal is to preserve the residence and then to furnish it with artifacts from the Harvey family, the Fred Harvey Company, and the Santa Fe Railroad. We seek to increase public awareness of Mr. Harvey's accomplishments, and to display insights into his family.
Fred Harvey not only created the worlds first chain of restaurants and hotels (called Harvey Houses) in association with the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe railroad, but he also contributed greatly to civilizing the American Southwest.
Presently, the Harvey residence is undergoing extensive restoration which limits the opportunity to tour the facility. However, if you contact us in advance we will try to accommodate your request for a tour.
We are fortunate to have close association with descendants of the Harvey family not only have they contributed family artifacts, they have also provided enthusiastic support for our endeavor.
Descendant of Fred Harvey, Mr. J. Stewart Harvey, Jr, writes to us:
"As a great-grandson of Fred Harvey, I am the oldest direct descendant, the last Harvey to be born in the Kansas City area and one of the last to have worked for the Fred Harvey Company.
Speaking personally as well as for the members of the Harvey family, we are very pleased to see the establishment of The National Fred Harvey Museum. We are doubly pleased to see Fred Harvey's house in Leavenworth as the museum's home as that is where he was happiest, where his luck changed to prosperity, where he thought his new country was at its best, and where he and his immediate family are buried.
The heart and soul of our family continue to reside in Leavenworth and we call on all others to recognize the Leavenworth-located National Fred Harvey Museum as the only one to be formally recognized by the Harvey family."
J. Stewart Harvey, JrWe would like to hear from you regarding our museum and this web site. Please contact us at fredharveymuseum@lvnworth.com
Museum: (913) 682-7947
Chairperson: (913) 682-1884
Wanted Information!
Do you have, or know of somebody who might have photographs that were taken inside the Fred Harvey mansion prior to 1950? Do you know of any first or second-hand accounts of the interior of this house?
We would like to make copies and return originals to you. These photographs and accounts might prove very useful to us in restoring the Harvey home to it's original splendor.
Please contact us with any information you may have.
