When was this tea time?
These young women appear to be preparing for a tea party – in the traditional sense, not the more modern, political one. The problem is, this photograph from the Observer-Reporter’s archives has no identification attached to it, and we don’t know who the girls are, or where and when it was taken.
We do suspect this might have something to do with the Brownson House, because it was found with many other photos that were clearly taken at that community and athletic facility. We might also guess the picture was taken in the early 1950s, when just about every girl in high school wore saddle shoes. (The more scuffed and worn-looking they were, the more fashionable.)
The kitchen in which they are working looks to be of industrial size, and the table heavy and Victorian.
If you think you know who these people are or where or when the photo was taken, email Park Burroughs, retired executive editor, at pburroughs@observer-reporter.com, or call and leave a message for him along with your telephone number at 724-222-2200, ext. 2400. With a little help from our readers, we may be able to solve this puzzle and publish our findings next Monday.
We had a few more readers offer late guesses at what last week’s Mystery Photo might have depicted. One reader suggested the block with a hole in it might be a cigar snuffer. Tom Bristor related that his grandfather started work at Jessop Steel in the 1930s and remembered that employees were given a dexterity test, putting round and square pegs into corresponding holes. Bristor thinks the block and cylinder might have been used for this purpose, but we think that might have been setting the bar a little too low.
Bill Forgie can recall as a child handling an object like the block that was about three inches square. He said it was made of a porous wood, and he was told it was used by his grandfather at his work as a meter reader for West Penn Power.