Pennsylvania Tea Rooms

Blue Parrot Tea Room Foyer, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, postcard front, linen era

Blue Parrot Tea Room Foyer, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, postcard back, linen era

Blue Parrot Tea Room, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, interior, postcard front, linen era

Blue Parrot Tea Room, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, postcard front, exterior, linen era

Blue- Parrot Tea Room, James Gettys Hotel, and Blocher's Jewelry Store, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, postcard front, exterior, linen era

Blue Parrot Tea Room, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, postcard back, linen era. The same back is found on all of the Blue Parrot postcards.

Wanamaker's Great Crystal Tea Room, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, interior, postcard front. This is one of the two large eateries with a claim to having been the first American department store tea room; the other is Marshall Field's in Chicago, Illinois. Neither of them are tea rooms in the traditional British or early American sense of the term, as they served thousands of customers at a time. In "The Stranger in the Cup," we learn that "Wanamaker’s Department Store in Philadelphia, which had opened in 1876, claimed that its Crystal Tea Room was the first [department store tea room], and well it may have been. Located on the 9th floor of the store, it was the largest dining room in Philadelphia, providing breakfast, luncheon, and afternoon tea for up to 1,400 people at a sitting. John Wanamaker was a devout Christian who supported the Temperance cause, so alcohol was not served there."

Wanamaker's Great Crystal Tea Room, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, interior, postcard back.

The Venture Tea Room and Art Shop, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, RPPC postcard front, circa 1919. Blanche L. James was the proprietor of the Venture Tea Room and Art Shop at 255 South Camac Street from 1919 to 1925. That year, joined by two new partners, Corinne Meyers and Rose Kessler, she opened the Venture Bookshop, Gardens, and Tea Room one block north of this location, at 201 South Camac Street. For those who are curious, the drawing to the left of the beautiful lettering represents a group of lotus or water lily pods.