Angelina M. Lopez

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Contemporary Romance Author, Hyperromantic

Angelina M. Lopez 7/25/14 Angelina M. Lopez 7/25/14

Taking Tea at Historic Rosemont Manor

Going to a tea at the Historic Rosemont Manor in Berryville, Va., is everything little girls imagine tea parties are like when they put on their mothers' floppy hats and drink fruit punch out of tiny cups. As full-grown women, my girlfriend and I got to wear our pretty summer dresses and enter the elegant Southern-style manor where American royalty like the Kennedys once stayed. We got to drink tea from delicate rose-painted cups and eat peach scones topped with Devonshire cream.

Downton Abbey is a hit for a reason. That show about a noble family and its servants living in an esteemed English manor encourages a certain amount of adult pretend. But for the two hours of the tour-and-tea luncheon at Historic Rosemont Manor, you can live that elegant lifestyle.

Like Downton Abbey, the history of Rosemont Manor is long and rich (I’m referring to the fictional history of the show, which I know, versus the actual history of Highclere Castle, which I don’t know). Originally built in 1811 as a merchant groom’s gift to his landed gentry bride, the manor has been home to a Union hospital, has been sold for a $1 and has been considered as a site for 90 luxury homes. Most notably, the home was owned by Virginia governor and U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. The names of the many luminaries who visited him there – Charles Lindbergh, Albert Einstein, FDR, Eisenhower, Nixon, Johnson – are used to designate the manor’s twelve suites and four cottages.

We owe the fact that we simple folk can visit the place to the daughter of current owner William "Biff" Genda. When she saw its perfect location, at the top of a slope that overlooks beautiful park grounds and the Shenandoah Valley, she commented that she’d love to be married there. That lightbulb transformed the 200-year-old private residence into an elegant B&B and wedding venue that opened in 2010. The manor has hosted 64 weddings this year and already has 20 booked for 2015.

But back to the tea. On occasional Saturdays and Wednesdays, the Rosemont Manor hosts a three-course tea service for $44 a person. The event begins in the wedding reception hall with a champagne glass of fruit juice. We women in attendance looked like butterflies, and the staff treated us like honored guests. Director of Weddings Michael Haymaker led us into the home and explained its history and Manor House Chef Tona Bays talked excitedly about the three-courses she’d chosen.

Bays focuses on seasonal, local offerings and apologized for what she felt was a diminished peachiness to the peach offerings of the summer menu. Our area’s unending winter, she explained, hit the local peach hard. She had nothing to apologize for. The peach scone with peach preserves was rich with summer sweetness. I originally thought we’d be hitting a rib stand on the one-and-a-half-hour drive home, but the one-bite sandwiches, scones and desserts were substantive in flavor and surprisingly filling. I don’t know teas well, but these were delicious.

My girlfriend and I are already looking forward to the spring menu, when the area is exploding with azalea flowers, or the Christmas menu, when the house is done up for the holidays. There's no reason we have to limit our elegant make-believe to once a year.

Taking a Tour of the Historic Rosemont Manor

Reception

Tea check-in is in the wedding reception hall. The room can hold 175 people.

Rosemont Manor

The portico

A quick view of the foyer and gorgeous portico precedes the tea. You can come back to the rocking chairs later.

The lawns

Somewhere on the grounds are the remains of the outhouse. And the jewels buried there during the Civil War.

First course

Our savory course included cucumber sandwiches, pimento cheese on pumpernickel and tomato salsa on crostini

Mystery item

Do you know what this? Check out my Facebook page for the answer.

Second course

Our scones course included a peach scone and a cheddar chive and bacon scone. Peach preserves and Devonshire cream were served on the side.

Third course

Our dessert course included peach bites, lemon thyme cookies and wineberry sorbet.

The foyer

Guests are invited to tour the house and grounds after the tea.

The sitting room

Seventy-five people can stay on the grounds of the Historic Rosemont Manor.

Second floor lounging

The original gas fixtures have all been kept and converted into electric lighting.

Eisenhower suite

Tea guests can check out the bedrooms that aren't currently occupied.

Kennedy suite

Magazines, books and portraits of the suites' namesakes help to personalize the rooms.

Bedroom suites

Magazines, books and portraits of the suites' namesakes help to personalize the rooms.

A piece of history

These preserved pencil marks help guests to remember that their weekend lodging was once a home.

Angelina M. Lopez 6/24/14 Angelina M. Lopez 6/24/14

Hillwood Estate: A Day With the Most Glamorous Woman

Stepping onto the grounds of the Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens in Northwest D.C., is like being invited to take your time checking out the glittering jewels, gleaming furniture, sparkling objets d’art and beautiful gardens of the wealthiest and most glamorous woman you’ll ever know.

And it is a true invitation.

Marjorie Merriweather Post. From Hillwood Museum

Marjorie Merriweather Post, heiress to the Post Cereal Company and one of the founders of General Foods, bought the home in 1955 intending it to be a museum for the 18th-century French and Russian imperial decorative arts that she collected. She wanted my girlfriend Paige and me to covet the 18th-century French dinnerware in the light-and-flower-filled breakfast nook. She wanted us to take a long walk through the hillside gardens, laughing just a shade too loud for such an elegant place.

She wanted us to absolutely drool over her Cartier jewels, currently displayed in the exhibit “Cartier: Marjorie Merriweather Post’s Dazzling Gems,” in the Adirondack Building, one of the charming buildings hidden among the forested walks.

Marjorie Merriweather Post began collecting 18th-century French furniture and art to decorate her home. When she accompanied her third husband to the Soviet Union, where he served as ambassador, Marjorie became entranced with Russian imperial art and began to truly refine her collector’s eye. The first piece she purchased from Cartier years before her trip was prophetic - the amethyst Fabergé box connected her love of Carier, Russian imperial art and Fabergé, of which she would go on to collect 90 pieces.

In Between Tip: We'd tried the café at Hillwood Estate in the past, and hadn't thought much of it. It has apparently improved, because there was a 40-minute wait at lunch time. Get reservations!

Cartier exhibit in the Adirondack Building

In the small Adirondack Building is a green emerald once worn by Mexico’s Maximillian I and smuggled out of the country by his wife, an Indian pendant brooch with a 250-carat emerald, and a diamond clasp meant to be worn with the diamonds dripping down Marjorie’s back.

There’s also a story.

During the Great Depression, Marjorie Merriweather Post put her diamonds and emeralds in a safety deposit box. With the money she saved on insurance, she opened the Marjorie Merriweather Hutton Canteen, a soup kitchen in New York. She made sure the canteen had flowers on the table and blue-checked tablecloths, because she believed everyone deserved a little elegance.