The Summit Tea Room | Est 1918
History of The Summit Tea Room In our effort to create a 1920's Prohibition style atmosphere at the Summit, we have endeavored to bring back some of the style and flare of that era. Women were now able to vote and started to frequent "juice joints". The Jazz Age, Homebrew, Flappers and Moonshine were all the rage in the 20's and "Tea Rooms" operated as illegal speakeasies. Radio and Talking Pictures became major sources of news and entertainment during the 20's, uniting the country as never before. Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean. Luxury rail travel was at it's peak, and the automobile gained popularity, as the United States Interstate Highway System started to develop. The stories of that era and the history of the Summit Tea Room, have been most entertaining. None of the "Tea Room Tales" would have been told if the Delaware Lackawanna & Western Railroad (DL&W) had not relocated their main line railroad tracks in 1915. In 1915, the DL&W Railroad completed The Summit Cutoff, a monumental engineering feat from Great Bend to Clarks Summit, PA. The DL&W then gave the old railroad bed built in 1851 to the State of Pennsylvania for use as a public highway (U.S. 11). As a result of these two massive excavations, The Summit Tea Room was built on a huge manmade cliff with great views, where these immense construction projects converge. After Congress passeed the 18th Ammendment (Prohibition Laws) over the presidential veto of Woodrow Wilson in 1918, Jack Hallick built the Summit Tea Room on this cliff to serve the 3,000 to 4,000 men working on the new highway U.S. 11. The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad
The DL&W Railroad operated a first class passenger railway, offering luxury Pullman Car Services on The Phoebe Snow, The Lackawanna Limited and other high-speed luxury trains from New York City (Hoboken, NJ) to Buffalo, NY and onward to Chicago. The busy railroad carried hundreds of thousands of regular passengers and large amounts of newly arrived immigrants to Chicago, where some would change trains for other western destinations. From 1912 thru 1915, the DL&W built a new much larger railroad bed called the Summit Cutoff, from Clarks Summit to Great Bend, PA, as the old line built in 1851 (now U.S. 11) was too steep and narrow to handle all the traffic flow. The Summit Cutoff was created as construction crews removed over 450,000 railcars of rock and material with huge rail steam shovels from 1912 thru 1915. To the rear of the Summit Tea Room, at the bottom of the Summit Cutoff lies the DL&W tracks, still operational and busy today as part of the Canadian Pacific Rail System. This mammoth construction project also included The Tunkhannock Viaduct, the largest concrete bridge in the world. Finished at a cost of $12,000,000 in 1915 and still in use, The Tunkhannock Viaduct is located 18 miles south of the Summit on U.S. 11, in Nichoson, PA. "Although the DL&W 'the Route of Phoebe Snow,' and its successor Erie-Lackawanna Railroad passed from the scene more than 30 years ago the 'Summit Cutoff' and its monumental viaducts still stand today as testaments to creative engineering applied to a natural, geographical pathway." -Quote from The Northeast Geographical Society. The Roaring 20's After the conclusion of World War I, men and women were looking for good times. Prior to Prohibition, women were banned from most drinking establishments. With woman now able to vote, the Jazz Age now coming into its own, a booming economy, everyone winking, smiling and looking the other way, the stage is set for the "Roaring 20's". During the 20's, the Summit Tea Room operated as a roadhouse, restaurant and speakeasy. Local folklore has it that besides all the partying, drinking and gambling, many other illegal activities also took place at the Summit Tea Room. As the 20's roared, bootleggers and other criminal ganges who eventually took over the illegal booze trade gained wealth and power. By 1927, most Americans were disgusted with all the corruption and violence and demanded that the government do something. In response, the FBI started to hunt down these violent gangs, earning them their nickname "G Men". In New York City, "The Castellammare War" was raging between Joe "The Boss" Masseria and Salvator "The Boss of Bosses" Maranzano, for control of the New York City's illegal rackets. The bloodshed and bodies were drawing the attention of New York U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Dewey and the FBI. In an effort to relieve the pressure from law enforcement and stem the violence, Charlie "Lucky" Luciano and his henchmen decided to "bump off" both of The Mustache Petes. Luciano and other gangsters then formed "The Commission", composed of the five New York crime families and the Chicago outfit. "The Commission" laid down rules and regulations concerning gangland violence, soon becoming the feared and unquestioned ruling body of organized crime. In November of 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected on the "New Deal" platform to put the country back to work, clean up the corruption and to repeal the 18th Ammendment. Prohibition had been a failure, spawning more crime and violence than this country has ever seen before or since. The Noble Experiment finally ended in December 1933 and the country again went wet. In essence, the Summit Tea Room was a product of its time. While it did operate illegally during the Prohibition era, nonetheless, it became one of the first legal liquor licenses issued by the state of Pennsylvania after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. The Lackawanna Trail To the front of the Summit Tea Room lies Three Lakes Road and US Route 11, also known as the Lackawanna Trail. The Lackawanna Trail was constructed on top of the original Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad bed from 1918 thru 1922. In 1915, after the DL&W Railroad completed the "Summit Cutoff", the railroad deeded the right of way back to the state of Pennsylvania for use as a public highway, hence, the name for this section of Route 11, "The Lackawanna Trail." After construction commenced, thousands of workers flocked to the New Milford area to seek employment. Ultimately, 3,000 to 4,000 workers were employed building this grand and much needed highway from Scranton to Binghamton. When the road was completed in 1922, over 2,000 motor vehicles drove from Scranton to Binghamton and then back to New Milford for the festivities. In attendance were the Governors of New York and Pennsylvania, US Senators and Congressmen, Assemblymen and State Senators from both states. The Chief Council for the DL&W Railroad then presented the right of way transfer documents to Pennsylvania Governor William C. Sproul (known as the Father of Good Roads), for the consideration of one-dollar. Never before (or since) have so many dignitaries been in New Milford at one time. Shortly thereafter the Lackawanna Trail was opened to the public and the Endless Mountains had a grand new highway. Note: Route 11 between The Summit (elev. 1350 ft.) and the Tunkhannock Viaduct (elev. 820 ft.) in Nicholson, now has become increasingly popular with motorcyclists and bicyclists, as it gently winds downhill for 18 miles. Prohibition On January 16, 1920, Prohibition (a.k.a. The Noble Experiment) took effect. Immediately applications for religious or medicinal liquor permits shot up 800% and juice joints started popping up nearly everywhere. In New York City alone, there were over 5,000 speakeasies in the area around Times Square by the end of 1920. Sportingmen and Rumrunners like Bill McCoy became famous and made millions of dollars smuggling the highest quality Canadian liquor into the United States, hence the 20's slang term "The Real McCoy". Prohibition also turned brewery and distillery workers into homebrewers and moonshiners, while making criminals out of restaurant and bar owners. Taking legal businesses and making them illegal also played right into the hands of the gangsters and corrupt politicians, as never before could so much money be made illegally. Shortly after 1920, the New York State legislature realized it was impossible to enforce these laws without the support of the people. With New York (then the largest and most powerful state) looking the other way and ultimately washing its hands of Prohibition enforcement, many other states followed. With only 1,500 federal enforcement agents, the Federal Prohibition Agency was overwhelmed. In Washington, The Harding Administration was one of the most corrupt our country has ever seen. United States Attorney General Harry Dougherty, the man in charge of Prohibition enforcement, was on one Ohio bootlegger's payroll for over $300,000 a year, and turned a blind eye. The rest of the Presidential Cabinet known as the "Ohio Gang" was no better, as Teapot Dome and other big scandals rocked the Capital. President Harding although not on the take, was weak and subject to blackmail. A well-known drinker and gambler, Harding entertained lavishly with bootleg booze, fathered a child with his secretary and once lost the White House China in a card game. |
