Founded: January 1, 1913
Through: December 31, 1959
Location: 5747 Norton Rd, Vernon Center, NY, USA
Other names:
Rambler Rose Tea Room
Overview
The Rambler Rose Tea House, a turn-of-the-century tea room and restaurant, provided well-to-do guests with “fancy tea in a country setting” from 1913 to approximately 1927.
Details
The tea house was located at 5747 Norton Rd (2022 address) in Vernon Center. The business was started and managed by Florence Tournier in 1913.
In 1923, the Griswold sisters, Jennie and Flora, purchased the house and ran it for several years as an Inn. Miss Jennie served as the matron of the Maple Park Home for Aged Women (now the Maple Park Country Store) with Flora as the assistant. They both served there for 8 years until moving into their former tea house.
Prior to coming to Vernon Center, Florence Tournier was at the Little Tea House in Alexandria, VA. In 1928, after the Rambler Rose, she opened the Robin’s Nest restaurant in Clinton on Utica St., in the former Robbins Home, with her mother Nina Drury. Nina graduated from New York’s Ware School of Tea House Management and for a time, was assistant housekeeper at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington D.C.