From Mystic Tea Room

Revision as of 05:39, 15 October 2022

From the Land of Tea

In this installment of "From the Land of Tea," we take a sneak-peek look at an upcoming page that will eventually be on display to the public. As a Patreon supporter, you have access to the page one full year before the public does.

• Patreon Release Date: October 14th, 2022.
• Public Release Date: October 14th, 2023.

Please tell your friends that they can subscribe to my Patreon stream for $2.00 per week:

• "It's All Ephemera with Cat Yronwode"

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American Tea Room Business Cards!

Today's topic is again Tea Rooms by Location. These are old postcards, and each one has a caption explaining it, and some have additional text. These images will eventually be on display at the Mystic Tea Room web site. As a Patreon supporter, you have access to them one full year before the public does.

To place this work in context, please read the following introductory pages

• The Mystic Tea Room
• Tea Room History
• Tea Room Business Cards
• Tea Room Postcards
• How To Read Tea Leaves

Gone But Not Forgotten =

Vintage postcards depicting early to mid 20th century tea rooms are not excruciatingly difficult to acquire. Search the online auctions and postcard dealer sites and and you will soon get started on a a nice little collection. But try to collect business cards from tea rooms of the same time period and you will run into a brick wall. They are hard to find, no doubt about it.

In this installmen i am featuring Tea Rooms of the 20th Century for which business cards, advertisements, or signage exist, but for which i have not (yet) found postcards.

Thanks to you, my Patrons, this page has made it to the web. In a year it will be made public and the business cards will eventually be folded into my page on Vintahe Tea Room Business Cards by state and city.

Indiana Tea Room Business Cards and Advertisements

Mishawaka Tea Room, Mishawaka, Indiana, business card. This card features illustrative line-art and lettering ("Good old fashioned Home Cooking") and a spot cartoon, with comic strip lettering ("We have the hunches for lunches") We also learn that the proprietor, C. L. A. Miller, serves "Strictly Home Cooking" and that the tea room was located at 220 N. Main Street in downtown Mishawaka.

Maine Tea Room Business Cards and Advertisements

Rowenda Tea Room and Cottages, Crystal Lake, Gray, Maine. The sweet artwork depicts a young girl in Pilgrom costume, gazing upon blooming hollyhock flowers. Perhaps her name is Rowenda. "Situated on beautiful Crystal Lake in Gray, Maine, the ROWENDA TEA ROOM and COTTAGES offer the fastifious guest delicious home-cooked foods and attractive camps, under the pines on the shores of the lake. Special meals may be ordered, also reservations made in advance for camps. Telephone R-23. The ROWENDA TEA ROOM and COTTAGES are located on Route 26, three miles from Gray and only forty-five minutes by motor from Portland." Although it is undated, the early telephone number, the reference to a car as a "motor," and the Colonial Revival style of the art would seem to place this card in the period of 1920-1925. According to the Gray Historical Society, the property was 25 acres in size and the Tea Room was the regular meeting place for a women's association called the Optomystic Club. Frances Woodbury, the proprietor of the tea room. was the group's honorary president. When she died in 1932, her son Roliston inherited the property and the tea room was closed. Alice Welch purchased the property in the 1970s and as of 2021 she was operating an antique shop on the premises, named The Barn on 26.

Seth Parker Tea Roon, West Jonesport, Maine, Charlotte D. Morton, Hostess. "Shore Dinners, Lunches, Bridge Parties. Rooms by the Day, Week, or Season. Prices Reasonable." This nicely embossed card relates to Seth Parker, a fictional character on radio portrayed by Phillips H. Lord (1902 - 1975) and broadcast on WEAF in New York City, with national syndication on the NBC network. Lord was a 28 year old radio writer, creator, producer and narrator when he began "Sunday Evening at Seth Parker's," which featured a wise old clergyman-philosopher based on his own grandfather, Hosea Phillips. The show featured old musical favourites, and the kind of homespun small-town story-telling that nostalgic Americans love. The stories were set in Jonesport, Maine, and it is here that the Seth Parker Tea Room was created, to capitalize on the popularity of the show. In 1932 the radio series made the leap to film with the RKO Radio Pictures release "Way Back Home," starring Lord as Seth Parker and co-starred Bette Davis and Frankie Darro. This was accompanied by a 1932 book, "Seth Parker and His Jonesport Folks: Way Back Home." In 1933 Lord decided to outfit a schooner named the Seth Parker, and to broadcast the real-life adventures of himself and his crew via shortwave radio as they sailed to Australia from 1934-1935. The ship was wrecked by a tropical storm and the crew was rescued by the Australians, but it came to light that the old Yankee schooner was actually a party boat, carrying alcoholic beverages and young women. Lord came home, dropped the Seth Parker persona at once, and created a new show for the CBS network, "Gang Busters," which opened with the sound of machine guns, wailing sirens, and police whistles and presented real-life accounts of contemporary crimes. He made a long-term success out of "Gang Busters," which ran for more than 1,000 episodes over two decade and was franchised as a DC comic book and spun off into several movies and a TV series.

Radio Guide, December 17th, 1931, featuring a front-page story on the popularity of the Phillips H. Lord show "Sunday Evening at Seth Parker's."

Massachusetts Tea Room Business Cards and Advertisements

The Cabin Tea Roon, George and Maude Varney, proprietors. "Home Cooking -- Refreshments. Maple Products -- Gifts. Greenfield-Brattleboror Rd., Bernardston, Massachusetts." This business card is unusual in that although it is located on athe Massachusetts-Vermont border, the freehand lettering is in an Asian brush-stroke style and the image (copyright "M A I" or "A M I") depicts a Japanese Geisha preparing tea on the floor. How this fits in with "Cabin" name and the maple syrup products, or the oweners' surname, Varney, is a mystery to me.

Minnesota Tea Room Business Cards and Advertisements

According to the Zenith City Press, "Burgetta Moe’s Tea Room operated as part of her Coolshanagh Inn at 742 1/2 East Superior Street -- the eastern portion of the Hartley Building -- —beginning in 1921. The food was prepared 'as only Miss Moe knows,' and was famous for its roast chicken dinner. The tea house only opened for daily lunches and Sunday meals, served from noon to 2:30 pm. Today Patrick D. Francisco & Associates, a financial advising firm, operates from Miss Moe’s former location."

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New York Tea Room Business Cards and Advertisements

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Pennsylvania Tea Room Business Cards and Advertisements

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Tennessee Tea Room Business Cards and Advertisements

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