Jan Whitaker's Consumer Society
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TEA ROOM NAMES Tea rooms frequently chose memorable names which often imitated those of Colonial taverns. Here are some examples from the early 1900s. The Fernery, New York City The Copper Kettle, Northampton, Massachusetts Arts & Crafts Cottage, Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard The Green Dragon, Philadelphia The Whistling Oyster, Ogunquit, Maine The Sign of the Motor Car, Dennis, Cape Cod Rest-A-While, New York City Will o' the Wisp, Greenwich Village, New York City Teacup Inn, Chicago The Busy Bee, St. Louis Aunt Em's, Derry, New Hampshire The Jolly Miller, Hope Valley, Rhode Island The Sign of the Golden Orange, Miami Tea Pot Tavern, Rochester, Minnestota The Twin Owls, Estes Park, Colorado Two Girls' Waffle House, Anchorage, Alaska The Miramar, Columbus, Ohio House of the White Peacock, Washington DC Rick Rack Bird, Chicago The Chidwa, Detroit Ye Mayflower, San Francisco The Wind Blew Inn, Towertown, Chicago The Sign of the Green Kettle, Hartford, Connecticut The White Doors, outside Baltimore The Silver Latch, Minneapolis Ye Old Tea House, Stone Harbor, New Jersey Ye Olde Whipple Tea Barn, North Pownal, Vermont Ella Cinders Tea Room, Ashland, Virginia Brick Oven Tavern, Boston Bandana Kitchen & Tea Room, Asheville, North Carolina Dove and Distaff Tea Garden, Peace Dale, Rhode Island Robin Hood Tea Room, Kent, Ohio The Betsy Ross, Washington DC To read about my book on tea rooms, Tea at the Blue Lantern Inn, click here. |
Tea Room HistoryTea rooms were very popular in America in the first half of the 20th century, both as places for women to go and as businesses for women to run.
The Crumperie, Greenwich Village, New York ca. 1916-1926
The Crumperie interiors were decorated in a homey style with a quilt on the wall, and the bureau that you see in this drawing. When Crumpie was fortunate enough to secure a location with a fireplace, she placed a duck decoy on the hearth. In the Crumperie guestbook, a guest wrote: The decoy duck sits by the fire All day, and never seems to tire He wears a feather in his tail And eats the crumpets when they're stale. 
The Mary Louise Tea Room, Los Angeles, California ca. 1920
The room looks as though it's been decked out for a special party, maybe a wedding shower or a bridesmaids' luncheon. Each place setting has a floral display. Dressed dolls surround the be-ribboned centerpiece. Clear glass dishes appear at each place, with a stemmed glass of what looks like fruit salad. The Mary Louise, with its Oriental carpet, chandelier, fresh cut flowers, and pink and white color scheme, is a good example of a high-class tea room of the early 20th century, many of which were found in premier hotels. They attracted the society elite, who found it fashionable to entertain their guests in tea rooms. Further reading: "Tea Rooms," Town and Country, June 24, 1905. "Charm of the Colonial Tea Room," New York Times, January 26, 1908. "The Development of the Tea Room," Harper's Bazaar, March 1908. "Taverns and Tea Rooms as a Business for Women," Herminie Dudley and Sarah Leyburn Coe, Good Housekeeping, June, 1911. "The 'Tabby Cat' Tea House," Elizabeth L. Adams, House Beautiful, August, 1914. "The Coming of the Tea House," Mary Harrod Northend, American Cookery, June-July, 1915. "Do You Own a Barn, and Old Mill or a Tumble Down House?" Woman's Home Companion, May 1922. |
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