Pennsylvania Tea Rooms
From Mystic Tea Room
Pennsylvania State Tea Room Gallery, in alphabetical order by name of city or town.
Contents |
East Stroudsburg
[[File:Mt.-Tom-Tea-Room-Route-209-East-Strudsburg-PA-postcard-front.jpg|center|thumb|600px|Mt. Tom Tea Room on Route 209, East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, postcard front, circa 1915. The Mt. Tom Tea Room, with its carefully lettered sign and rural setting is a lovely example of the "roadside" tea rooms of the American Northeast that were built as add-ons to old farmhouses and offered luncheon service to adventurous motorists. In this photo you can clearly see the original farmhouse, the gabled addition where tea and meals would have been served in winter, and a second add-on, the screened "summer" tea room.
Gettysburg
Philadelphia
[[File:Wanamakers-Great-Crystal-Tea-Room-Philadelphia-PA-interior-postcard-front.jpg|center|thumb|600px|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."]]
catherine yronwode
curator, historian, and docent
The Mystic Tea Room