A Waltham Adventure - The Tea Leaf, Gore Place, and Stonehurst

Yesterday was a grand adventure with a rocky start. A friend invited me to go see Lyman Estate, which was supposed to be having an open house as part of the Historic Waltham Days (lots of wonderful events and thing are happening in Waltham right now). Unfortunately, when we showed up at the Lyman Estate, we were informed that the open house was not Thursday, the 8th, even though all the publicity had given that date. There must have been some misunderstanding somewhere, but so much for that plan.

Since we were looking so lovely, and this is a friend who has been telling me about a particular teahouse nearby forever, we went there. The Tea Leaf is absolutely darling, and the woman who runs it is delightful. We had some delicious tea and tasty cucumber sandwiches for lunch. Yum. Definitely go there when you get a chance. We chatted, both with the woman who owns the Tea Leaf and with some other very nice people eating there, and they all suggested that we go check out Gore Place, since the Lyman Estate hadn't worked out and because Gore Place is lovely. She even called them so they would know we were coming, and they set up a special tour for us. Here is a picture taken at the Tea Leaf - note the seersucker.Gore Place is absolutely gorgeous, and the gentleman who gave us our tour did a spectacular job pointing out fascinating things. I can heartily recommend going to look at it some time. I would tell you all about the house, but there is just too much! Some highlights are the incredible stairs, the fascinatingly large billiards table, the super lovely reproduction wallpaper (especially with the birds... I love that stuff), a particularly beautiful vainty, pretty marble floors, Mr. Gore's outfit for going to court (regal, not legal, if that was unclear), etc. Too many lovely things. Here's a picture in front of the entrance.Next, we went to take a look around Stonehurst, but as we arrived a woman came to the door and told us we could take a look around inside if we wanted, which was very sweet. So we wandered around, inside and out, and I was very much photographed. My favorite is the picture with the big windows... I really love that one for some reason.
So yesterday was an adventurous day, full of Waltham History and good clothing. The end.