CULTURAL & COMMUNITY EVENTS
Barrington’s White House offers outstanding performances and cultural events. Each season, we’ll host some of the most renowned artists and speakers in the world. For ticketing information, see the calendar below.
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An Afternoon Tea with Bertha Honoré Palmer Presented by “Julia Robertson’s Women’s Thursday Club”
May 7, 2020 @ 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED
Over 100 years ago, John and Julia Robertson made Barrington’s White House their home. This historic tea event brings back the tradition of Julia Robertson’s Women’s Thursday Club and features honored “guest” Bertha Honoré Palmer (wife of famed Chicagoan Potter Palmer) as portrayed by Leslie Goddard. Gerri of High Tea with Gerri will give an introduction to the history and art of drinking tea. The afternoon tea includes a special blend of Earl Grey Breakfast tea, savories, finger sandwiches, scones, and petit fours served by Gerri’s staff using vintage tea cups and plates.
Through its inspiration of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, John & Julia E. Robertson, residents of Barrington, built their modified foursquare home in 1898 in the Classical Revival style. It quickly became the social center of the village. For the next 20 years, Julia gathered people in her home on Thursday afternoons for discussions of the times.
Following the tradition she established, her home, the Barrington White House, currently on the National Register of Historic Places and the cultural and community center of the Village of Barrington, is reviving Julia’s Women’s Thursday Club by instituting an “An Afternoon Tea with Bertha Palmer”.
Bertha Honore Palmer, wife of real estate magnate Potter Palmer of Chicago and patron of the arts, is the honored guest. Bertha Palmer was instrumental in assisting her husband after the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 and was the hostess at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. Mrs. Bertha Palmer (portrayed by Leslie Goddard, Ph.D., award winning actress, scholar and author) of Chicago will grace us with her presence and share anecdotes of her time with her husband, Potter Palmer.
