Ladies in an assortment of vintage hats enjoyed an afternoon of tea, scones and cucumber sandwiches as part of the Palatine Historical Society’s effort to raise funds to restore the Clayson House’s carriage house.
The Historical Society expects to raise $1,500 from the Victorian Tea held over two weekends in the historical Clayson House, built in 1873. The event, which continues on Sunday but is sold out, is expected to attract more than 200 guests.
Funds from the second year of the Victorian Tea will help restore the carriage house, said Marilyn Pedersen, a Historical Society coordinator.
The society wants to convert the now-unused carriage house into a firehouse museum complete with an 1890s firetruck and volunteer bell, she said. The Historical Society has raised half of the necessary $75,000. The firehouse museum is expected to open by the end of next summer, Pedersen said.
During one seating of the Victorian Tea, nearly 30 women sipped tea from fine china cups and enjoyed chicken and almond sandwiches, eclairs and lemon tarts as they learned about tea customs from historian Connie Rawa of Palatine.
Rawa said that tea drinking originated with the Chinese some 5,000 years ago when the wind blew some tea leaves into a pot of boiling water.
While longtime friends Shirley Telegdy of Schaumburg and Judy Gmetro and Nancy Kihle, both of Palatine, may not have known the extensive history behind teas, they are tea buffs nonetheless.
The trio has sampled teas everywhere from London to Cleveland.
“They’re so much fun to attend,” Telegdy said. “They make me feel pampered. They’re very elegant, and I don’t feel like I’m paying an arm and a leg.”
Added Gmetro: “It’s like a mini spa. It takes you away.”
As part of the afternoon’s program, hat collector Rawa shared her knowledge of the accessory. “Bonnets were the rage in the 1850s. It was considered lower class to have tanned skin,” Rawa said.
