Tea Room Postcard #47 - Donaldson's Glass Block Department Store Japanese Tea Room (Minneapolis, MN)

Donaldson's Glass Block Department Store in Minneapolis, Minnesota is a vintage department store I initially found interesting because of the name. The store was so named because of all the glass used in its design (there are lots of photos of the exterior in postcards on eBay if you're curious, as I was). But of course what I really enjoyed learning about was the store's Japanese Tea Room, which is shown here in this postcard mailed in 1908.

This card was mailed to Miss Mary Brown of what I believe is Mora, Minnesota. It was mailed from Osseo, Minnesota on Oct. 5, 1908 and reads, "Dear Aunt, I see you are still OK these days and playing (music?). How did you survive the cool spell? I guess there was a heavy fire in Foley the other day and the forest fires are all out now I hope. I guess I will have to draw this to a close. Your loving nephew Bill." It continues to amaze me that occasionally I am sitting here reading someone's correspondence from more than a hundred years ago. A hundred years from now, how will folks know what we were up to back in 2014? Will they go back and read our Twitter feeds, blogs, Facebook pages or e-mails? Somehow I doubt it, but I can't yet imagine what will take the place of the old handwritten letters and postcards. Can you?