Florida Tea Rooms

From Mystic Tea Room

Florida State Tea Room Gallery, in alphabetical order by name of city or town.

Coconut Grove, Florida

La Casita Tea Room, Coconut Grove, Miami, Florida;-exterior, chrome era, postcard front. The proprietors were Grace and Bob Ousley.

La Casita Tea Room, Coconut Grove, Miami, Florida;-exterior, chrome era, postcard back.

Maitland, Florida

The Little Grey House Tea Room, Maitland, Florida, exterior, postcard front.

The Little Grey House Tea Room, Maitland, Florida, exterior, postcard back

Miami Beach, Florida

Palm Tea Room Lobby and Dining Room, 1810 Lenox Avenue, Miami Beach, Florida, interior, postcard front, linen. Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Berry, proprietors.

Orlando, Florida

The Latch String Tea Room in a Tropical Garden, 718 Magnolia Avenue, Orlando, Florida; the building is a glass-walled structure built of tree-trunks and poles, looking out on a lavish garden of tropical plants; there is a bright fire on the massive stone hearth, and dozens of potted plants crowd about on the floor, on benches, and on wall-shelves

The first notice i can find of the Latch String Tea Room is in the the Orlando telephone directory for 1929. The Latch String is located at the address indicated on this postcard, 718 Magnolia Avenue, which is at the corner of Magnolia and Colonial Drive. It was owned by Mulford B. Foster, who operated two businesses on the site, the Tropical Arts Nursery and the Latch String Tea Room. Foster was an artist who travelled the world in search of rare plants, and in addition to selling paintings, he sold potted plants, including Bromeliads. The Tea Room was situated on a piece of property about the size of three or four lots and was said to have been planted with 200 different species of ornamental plants. In the 1929 phone book, Foster himself lived across the street from the Nursery and Tea Room, at 711 Magnolia Avenue.

According to an Orlando history site, the Latch String Tea Room survived well into the 1950s, but by now the Tropical Arts Nursery, the Latch String Tea Room, and Mulford Foster's home have all been demolished and the beautiful showplace garden has been replaced by a 7-11 convenience store, gas station, and parking lot.

(For those unfamiliar with a latch string, it is a traditional rustic device in which pulling on a string lifts a latch that opens a door. When the string is inside the building, the latch cannot be lifted from the outside, and the door is effectively locked. However, when the string is poked through its hole and hangs outside, the door can be opened by pulling the string, which lifts the latch. It was once an idiomatic phrase to declare one's hospitality by saying, "The latch string is always out at our house," because to leave your latch string out was a sign that you were open to visitors. It is in this sense that Mr. Foster wished to make it clear that he welcomed guests to his nursery and to the Latch String Tea Room.)