Every day, Lester the NYPD police horse worked with his two-legged partner on Fifth Avenue near 35th Street. And every day at 5 p.m., he would visit the Mother Goose Tea Room at 13 East 35th Street. He would stick his nose over the hedge and wait for a few lumps of sugar.
The Mother Goose Tea Room, owned by Clementine V. Lasar Studwell, was a novelty tea room that went over the top with the Mother Goose theme, starting with the display window, which featured a large shoe with windows and a door, and a statue of Mother Goose in her red dress.
The halls were decorated with Mother Goose paintings by famous illustrators of children’s stories, and all the chinaware was painted with characters such as Tom Thumb, Jack Horner, and Old King Cole. There were wooden tables and benches crafted in Dutch style, and the waitresses dressed like Dutch maids.
Every day when Lester the police horse came to visit, the waitresses would attend to him just as they would any human customer. After he received his sugar, he would nod his head in thanks and walk away.
Although the Mother Goose Tea Room was popular with children–many children’s had birthday parties there–it was also popular with young ladies who came to read their fortunes in Mrs. Studwell’s fortune-telling tea cups.
Mrs. Studwell, who was popular soprano soloist for several churches in Manhattan and Brooklyn, began the business in 1910 when she was 61 years old, after her husband, George Stuart Studwell, began losing money in his business ventures. (Incidentally, the famous architect Charles McKim made his home in the four-story building at 13 East 35th Street until he moved out in 1908).
Clementine said the tea room was quite profitable with women, who came for the tea leaves, and also with men, who came for the famous German nut bread (and probably the Dutch maid waitresses). All her customers called her Mother Goose.
Every customer who ordered tea would receive a booklet explaining how to read the tea leaves. According to Mrs. Studwell, the proper way to read tea leaves was to turn the cup over four times after finishing the tea.
One the final turn, she said, you could predict your fortune at various points in your life by seeing where the tea leaves landed. If the leaves stopped on the rising sun, for example, it meant fame; if they landed on the book, that denoted wisdom; the four-leaf clover meant good luck and the crown was a sign of power.
Unfortunately for Lester the horse, the novelty tea room did not last long. By 1913 it was called Mrs. Warner’s Tea Shop, and in the 1920s it was known as the Green Parrot Team Room.
In 1923, a third-floor apartment above the tea room was the scene of an alleged torrid love affair between the wife of W.E.D. Stokes, owner of the Ansonia Hotel, and Edgar T. Wallace, a bachelor. The newspapers reported on all the lurid details of the affair, including Mrs. Stokes’ clothing choices or lack thereof.
During the divorce litigation, which lasted five years, several women who worked in the tea room testified that they would bring food up to Mr. Wallace’s bedroom, which is where they saw Mrs. Stokes.
Clementine Studwell died in July 1929 at the age of 79. She was survived by her husband and a son, George.
