Elizabeth Bronson of Haddam, who had been operating a tea room of her own for several years, agreed in July 1919 to sell most of her equipment to the Colonial Dames, and to operate their tea room for the summer.  The Webb House Committee, chaired by Mrs. H.P. Maxim, invested $227.75 to acquire a set of china, chairs and tables, some flatware and linens, and other essentials.  The house was open for tours, and visitors could order afternoon tea from summer through early fall.  In 1919, the Tea Room netted $8.00, the most profit it ever made.

In the following year Tea Room service was expanded to include luncheon, but receipts did not increase.  Due to lack of heat in the Webb House, extending the season was impossible.  Instead, the Colonial Dames began discussing ways to make the Tea Room more attractive to customers.  Miss Annie Burr Jennings of Fairfield offered to pay for moving the old barn further back on the property and installing a garden.  She commissioned landscape architect Amy Cogswell to design and install a series of symmetrical beds filled with traditional flowers (see elsewhere).

Although the garden was well-received, the Tea Room continued to falter financially.  New managers were hired almost annually, but the Webb House Tea Room was never the successful fundraising device the Colonial Dames envisioned. After the 1924 season the Board of Managers decided not to open it the following year.

For more than seventy years the Tea Room remained a dim memory.  Fortunately, a few photographs had been taken while it was operating, and in 1996 the Museum staff recreated the Tea Room from the photographic evidence.  Since then the exhibit has improved with the loan of dishes that match the original set, and a display of faux food designed to match the kind that might have been served in the 1920s.  Here  visitors can step back into the early twentieth century, and learn about the Colonial Dames and the important historic preservation efforts they have undertaken in Connecticut.
 

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