A "Tea Fit for a Queen" at Longacre House

The Longacre House, located in Farmington Hills, MI, was originally a small six-room brick Victorian house built in 1869 on 100 acres of farmland, owned by the Sherman family.

In 1915 a Detroit attorney, Luman Goodenough, purchased the house and 40 acres of land.  He had the house redesigned and expanded into a 20-room Georgian country house. In 1918 he and his family moved in and named the estate "Longacres."

In 1968 the children of Mr. & Mrs. Goodenough donated the house and five acres of land to Farmington Hills to be used as a non-profit community center. 

I first met Linda Pudlik [right in photo below]  in October 2002 when I joined her tea club, AnTEAquers.   Since May 2008, she has been working for the Farmington Hills Cultural Arts Department coordinating monthly teas at Longacre House.   This was the second program she invited me to present there.  

I did a program honoring Queen Elizabeth II for the ladies of my church in the spring of 2011 [click here to read about it].   It seemed fitting to repeat it [with a few modifications] in celebration of the Queen's upcoming Diamond Jubilee in June.

~ Program & Menu Card ~

~ Dining Room ~

~ Gold and Purple Tablescape ~

~ Teabag envelope with official Diamond Jubilee photograph of the Queen ~

~ Scone with Creamed Fig Butter ~

~ Roasted Lamb w/Vegetables, Potatoes, and Creamy Cucumber Salad ~

~ Buckingham Palace Tea  by Metropolitan Tea Company ~

~ Union Jack Cake ~

Linda selected a trio of readers to read a fun-filled script of interesting facts about the Queen from her birth to the present time.

Lady below portrayed the Queen

Display cabinet of Queen Elizabeth II memorabilia.

We played a cute game at the beginning of the tea entitled, "The Royal Name Game."  Each lady had to give themselves an "aristocratic" name for the afternoon.   There was a piece of paper at each place setting for them to write the following:

[1]  Their Title - females are always "Lady"

[2]  Add grandmother's first name [maternal or paternal]

[3]  Then the name of a childhood pet - if they had one

[4]  Lastly the name of the street they grew up on.

Each table selected a winner and at the conclusion of the tea the winners shared their aristocratic name, and received a package of McVities Classic Rich Tea Biscuits.