SAN MARINO, Calif. — For nearly a century, The Huntington Library’s Rose Garden Tea Room has been one of Southern California’s most treasured and idyllic oases. A throwback to more genteel times, the small outpost in the heart of a sprawling botanical garden estate served tea, scones and finger sandwiches to visitors until March 2020, when COVID-19 prompted its temporary closure.
Now, more than three years later, afternoon tea service is poised to resume in an upgraded and expanded space that pays tribute to the original building and culinary offerings but brings them both into the 21st century. The tea room reopens to the public May 24. Reservations will be available through OpenTable beginning May 10.
“When the pandemic hit and forced the Huntington to close its doors for the first time in a hundred years, we realized it presented an opportunity to renovate and restore the tea room,” The Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence said Monday during a preview of the updated space.
“To do so in an otherwise terrible period felt like something about the future, something healthy and looking forward.”
The Huntington had several objectives when it undertook the renovation. Preserving and restoring the original building was a given, but The Huntington also wanted to create new building additions that were contemporary yet compatible with the existing structure and offer a variety of elegant dining spaces for visitors and the various occasions they celebrate there.
“Everything we intended to be meaningful about a history that we want to share, but with lots of people,” Lawrence said of a three-part tea room that now seats 164.
While the original dining space has been reconfigured and redecorated with textile designs sourced from the Huntington’s own collection and the original carved-wood fireplace that is now the focal point of the room, the tea room has two additional eating areas. A complimentary structure has been added to the historic building, allowing for a new open-air dining area facing the Shakespeare Garden and a second, enclosed dining room oriented toward the Herb Garden.
The Herb Garden was one of The Huntington’s original gardens, “so the garden-building relationship was absolutely central to everything we thought about,” said Stephen Farneth, project architect for the renovation.
“We really want to make sure that the new building doesn’t overwhelm or that you make such a strong statement in the new building that nobody even acknowledges the old building,” Farneth said of the new structure, which mirrored the original’s creamy palette, stucco walls and clay tile roof. “We are always in our work trying to be respectful of this building and subtle in the way new elements are added.”
The renovated tea room has a long history to respect. Before it was used to serve the public, the building was a game room for the railroad magnate after which The Huntington Library takes its name: Henry E. Huntington. During the 18-month renovation, evidence of its gaming past was unearthed when construction workers found old playing cards and a bridge game scorepad hidden in an interior wall.
Originally built in 1911, its billiard room was reworked into a dining space for visitors, staff and researchers and its two-lane bowling alley was remade into a kitchen in 1928. In the 1960s and 1970s, the building was a staff cafeteria. It wasn’t until the 1980s that The Huntington began the English-style afternoon tea service for which the Rose Garden Tea room is best known.
When the service resumes in May, the menu will include classic cucumber sandwiches, deviled egg cups with fresh cut chives and spring herb chicken salad, alongside butterscotch scones with clotted cream, strawberry preserves and fresh California strawberries with whipped cream.
“When I look out and walk through the herb gardens, I’m able to pull that into the menu. Obviously, being in Southern California, the availability of some amazing products just comes right to our back door,” Tea Room chef Jeff Thurston said. “The inspiration is all around us every day.”