Saturday, December 6, 2014

Tea Room Postcard #49 -- Strawbridge & Clothier (Philadelphia, Pa.)

It was while I was writing a book about department store tea rooms in 2011 that I first learned about the Strawbridge & Clothier department store in Philadelphia, Pa. I later acquired a teacup and a soup bowl from the old store, which was in business from 1868 to 2006 in the northeastern U.S., with headquarters in Philadelphia. That's the site of this vintage department store tea room postcard that I was happy to add to my collection.

The card is postally unused, but I liked it anyway because of not only the image of the tea room but also the old-timey telephone pictured on the back. When I was a little girl (which means the late sixties and early seventies), my mom was into the whole Early American decorating theme, and I remember having a wooden box telephone with a receiver that looked like the ones pictured here. In my lifetime I've seen a lot of changes in telephone equipment, including the switch from rotary phones to push-button phones (so exotic!), Princess phones, cordless phones, the first clunky "car phones," clamshell phones and now smartphones. I couldn't help chuckling the other day when I read a post on Facebook where some young mom was lamenting the misplacement of her cell phone and said, "Somebody ought to make one of these with a cord on it that you can hang on the wall." I think it was a joke, but I wouldn't bet on it!

7 comments:

  1. Great postcard, especially as you have some te aware from this store.

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  2. Fun postcard to add to your department store tea room memorabilia. Glad you shared the links to the teacup and soup bowl as I enjoyed going back to see them again.

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  3. Not too far from home....but sadly never got there! Telephones are so interesting! I haven't seen a phone booth in a very long time!

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  4. I went there while growing up in Philadelphia with my mother and grandmother while shopping at Christmas time and thought it was so fancy and beautiful.

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  5. My husband acquire the old box phone from his mother, but we have it stored away. Yes, I remember the era of decorating with them. Love the postcard and remember hearing of this store. Your department store postcards just delight me and bring back so many memories of the department store era.

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  6. That looks like a nice tearoom. I'm sure tea would have been so enjoyable. Am enjoying seeing all these great cards of yours. Have a good week, Joanie

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  7. That looks like a nice tearoom. I'm sure tea would have been so enjoyable. Am enjoying seeing all these great cards of yours. Have a good week, Joanie

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