When I wrote a book about department store tea rooms several years ago, one of the tea rooms I was unable to find an image of was the Wanamaker Great Crystal Tea Room, so I ended up just using a postcard showing the exterior of the store instead. Much later I came across this postcard and had to have it because a) it was a longed-for image of a famous tea room and b) it appears to be one of the largest department store tea rooms I've ever seen!
The back of the postcard shows it was postally unused, so I don't have a date to go by, but I'm still grateful to have the image of the Great Crystal Tea Room. At one time it was said to be the largest dining room in Philadelphia, and today the Crystal Tea Room is used as a banquet facility as part of the Philadelphia Convention Center. If you go
here, you can see what the former tea room looks like today, and you can definitely see that the columns and ceiling moldings look just as they did in the postcard from yesteryear!
I love this card and by the looks of it -- not so different from how it looks today. Fun!
ReplyDeleteHow beautiful! I can just visualize this room full of shoppers enjoying a quiet moment with friends.
ReplyDeleteI used to go there for lunch now and then. As a kid, we'd shop at Wanamaker's downtown before Christmas. There was a famous light show with organ music on the ground floor, and a monorail in the toy department. The tea room was still open when I was in college, in the 70s. The building is a full block (225 m./400 ft.) square, and the tea room was half the top floor.
ReplyDeleteWow! I am impressed with your postcard find and also the Valentine in the previous post, which I missed because I came late to the give away. Love seeing this tearoom.
ReplyDeleteWhat a large tea room, it would have been quite the outing to visit it.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful tearoom and so nice to hear that it's still in operation, as part of the Philadelphia Convention Center.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the interesting series, Angela. Have a great weekend, Joanie