Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
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Martinsville, Virginia 24115
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Betsy Myers (seated at center) is surrounded by people following her lecture Wednesday at the New College Institute. The lecture focused on tea rooms that operated in the Martinsville area from the 1940s to the 1960s. (Bulletin photo by Mickey Powell) |
Thursday, September 10, 2009
By MICKEY POWELL - Bulletin Staff Writer
From the 1940s through the 1960s, tea rooms were fashionable places to eat in the Martinsville area, according to retired local educator Betsy Myers.
As gathering places for community events, they catered functions such as wedding receptions and meetings of church and civic clubs. Some also were alternatives to restaurants for lunch and/or dinner, Myers recalled during a lecture about the eateries at the New College Institute on Wednesday.
Tea rooms operate worldwide. There are more than 2,000 throughout the United States, and four are within a 40-mile radius of Martinsville, the Web site Great Tearooms of America shows. All are in North Carolina, with the closest one in Stoneville.
The term “tea room” is derived from many such eateries serving beverages and light refreshments, being located in houses and having a sophisticated, sedate ambiance, according to information on the Internet.
Tea rooms that once existed in the Martinsville area — especially ones that served meals — had some male customers. But many customers were women, and they often wore fancy dresses, gloves and hats, Myers said.
“If we couldn’t find a hat in Martinsville, we’d go to Roanoke” to a store there and buy one, she said of women who patronized local tea rooms.
In that era, it was more common for people to dress up to go places than it is now, she indicated.
“We even dressed up to go to football games,” said Myers.
During her lecture, she recalled six tea rooms that existed in the Martinsville area at various times from 1942 to 1966. She did not have detailed histories of them, including the exact years in which they operated. Rather, she briefly described them based mostly on her memories.
In the 1940s, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Whittle operated a tea room called “The Breezes” at their home off Mulberry Road. Myers recalled that its specialties included toasted cheese sandwiches — which she has not yet been able to replicate, she said — and congealed salads.
At the time, she chuckled, “you didn’t have a party until you decided what type of congealed salad you were going to have, and everything else (served at the party) revolved around that.”
“Mulberry Terrace” was operated by Bud and Dot Barker at a home at the corner of Mulberry Road and Oakdale Street. Dot Barker “never hesitated to use her lovely things,” including her fine china, when catering luncheons and parties, Myers said.
Some of the specialties there were applesauce cake, brownies and spoon bread, and Dot Barker “was so kind ... she would always share (the recipes) with us,” recalled Myers.
The “Keesee Mansion Home,” on East Church Street across from the Rives Theatre, was owned by Charles Blackwell Keesee, a founder of American of Martinsville and the former People’s National Bank. The site of the home now is the drive-through lane for BB&T, Myers noted.
She did not have information on what was served at that tea room. But she said the home had high ceilings, “graceful moldings” and antique furnishings and chandeliers. After Keesee and his wife died in the 1940s, the house was left to First Baptist Church for a parsonage, but it was too large, she said.
The Barkers later moved there and launched another tea room called “The Spinning Wheel.” Dot Barker then expanded her services to include wedding receptions, Myers said.
Three of the area’s tea rooms were named “The Townhouse.”
One was in a brick house on Broad Street on property now owned by the Martinsville Bulletin. Mrs. Eldon Holsinger operated the tea room from 1947 until the early 1950s and served lunch, according to Myers.
Among Holsinger’s popular treats was chicken salad, she said.
Jean Mitchell operated her tea room known as “The Townhouse” in the Spencer home at the corner of Ellsworth and Church streets in the early 1950s. Popular menu items included chicken, lemon tarts and broccoli casserole, Myers recalled.
It was a popular lunchtime attraction for local business people, she said, considering “there were so few places to eat” in the area at that time.
Another “Townhouse” was operated by Mrs. Charles Reid in a house uptown where Martinsville First Savings Bank on Church Street now stands. Lunch and dinner were served, and the tea room also catered parties and club meetings, Myers said.
Reid was “a fabulous cook” who was known for her hot rolls, cornbread, lemon jelly pie and oatmeal pie, she said.
After Reid retired in 1966, she added, “that was the end of this era” and to her knowledge, no tea rooms have operated locally since then.
“Those of you who missed them, I truly am sorry,” Myers told approximately 60 people who attended her lecture.
Although it was not exactly a tea room, Myers also recalled a popular eatery in the former Broad Street Hotel uptown. It was run by “Miss Kate,” who often gave her customers a choice of three meats, even though they had to eat whatever vegetables had been prepared for the day, she said.
She recalled that if customers did not eat something on their plates, Miss Kate often would ask whether something was wrong with the food.
“Her chicken and dumplings were known around the world, I think,” Myers said, noting that salesmen visiting Martinsville often timed their visits to coincide with the days when Miss Kate served chicken and dumplings.
Uptown resident and developer Mervyn King said that after moving to the area in 1963, he stayed at the hotel for a while. No matter what time he arrived after working late hours at a hospital, he always found a dessert waiting for him, he said.
The hotel served “lovely meals,” King said.
Myers’ lecture was part of the institute’s ongoing Non-Credit Lecture Series. Lectures planned in the coming months will concern the H1N1 virus and local history, including drug stores that no longer are in business. |
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