New posts each week on Monday. In the post below, I originally spelled her name Frances in some places and Francis in others. Since the book and restaurant say Frances, and the more common spelling for a woman is Frances, that has now been corrected.
My mom had many cookbooks and I am lucky enough to now have them in my collection. She had a copy of the “Frances Virginia Tearoom Cookbook,” published by Peachtree Publishers 1981 and written by Frances Virginia Wikle Whitaker. Whitaker’s Aunt Agnes began working at the tea room as it expanded in the 1940s.
The tea room first opened on Poplar Street. Frances Virginia Whitaker’s sisters, Hooper Wikle Beck and Margaret Wikle Beck Butler helped her with the restaurant. Their mother worked at the cashier’s desk.
In the 1930s, Frances Virginia Tea Room moved to the corner of Ellis and Peachtree Street as more space was needed. This building was called Collier building, named for early settler George Collier and is where the silhouette of Frances Virginia’s face is remembered as hanging next to the restaurant sign over Peachtree. “For almost four decades her portrait reigned in neon over Atlanta’s famous Peachtree Street.”
During World War II the tea room was very popular. The city was crowded with soldiers and others from all over America. “By 1943, the second year of the war, the Tea Room served more than 2,000 meals per day.” People of Atlanta called it the “Frances Virginia.”
Articles appeared in the Atlanta Constitution about parties held at Frances Virginia Tea Room, including bridal parties and birthday parties. In 1961, the Constitution newspaper announced the Georgia Chrysanthemem Society meeting at Frances Virginia Tearoom.
Shoppers had lunch there and out-of-town visitors considered the Frances Virginia a must for their visit.
The Frances Virginia was not just for ladies. Local businessmen also ate there and sometimes held meetings in the tea room. In 1932, post office supervisors of Atlanta quarterly meeting was held there. Postmaster E. K. Large and supeintendent C. G. Clark spoke. (Atlanta Constitution, Oct. 26, 1932)
Because the tea room opened in the 1920s and closed in 1962, it probably did not welcome Black diners. In the couple of years before the tea room closed, sit-ins took place at Rich’s Magnolia Room. Martin Luther King was one of those who participated in a 1960 sit-in at the Magnolia Room. I have not found information about sit-ins at the Frances Virginia Tearoom so far. Read about the Rich’s sit-ins here.
The children’s menu included a peanut butter sandwich. Children received their own box of animal crackers at the end of the meal. The box was also a toy for the child, a toy that was not noisy.
The author of the book includes a page on how ladies dressed in the 1950s when going out to shop or to a tea room. First of all, a hat was essential. Makeup included loose powder, red lipstick, rouge, and perfume. Another essential component of the outfit was gloves, white or tinted, sometimes with buttons.
When Peachtree at Ellis became a Marta Station in 1976 the silhouette of Frances Virginia came down.
In “Explosion at Orly,” by Ann Uhry Abrams, she tells that the Frances Virginia Tearoom closed the same year as the Orly explosion. “The tearoom served its last fried chicken and frozen fruit salad, poured its last iced tea, and closed its doors forever.” If you aren’t familiar with the Orly explosion go to Orly explosion Georgia Encyclopedia.
