The "Save the Tea Room" campaign for L.S. Ayres

My Bucket List of places to visit includes a few old department store tea rooms still in operation today. I say "few" because there are only a precious few of them, and one of these is the recreated L.S. Ayres department store tea room at the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis. The vintage postcard in the background shows the old store. And the button?

According to the Indiana State Museum, my button is just like one in its collection and dates to 1990: "The donor, Glory-June Greiff, wore a similar button; these were available for sale ($1 donation) to help fund an intensive effort to keep the Tea Room open November-December 1990. The petition drive was staged right in front of L.S. Ayres on the southwest corner of Washington and Meridian. Petitioners held hand-drawn signs. The donor coordinated the campaign spearheaded by Historic Indianapolis, Inc., (of which she was spokesperson). The effort was backed by both Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana (with funding and joining the effort), and the Indianapolis Preservation Commission."

Alas, the tea room closed at the end of December 1990, and the downtown department store itself closed a year later. But fortunately for fans of the store, and tea rooms, the L.S. Ayres Tea Room has been recreated at the Indiana State Museum and you can read more about it here. Also, my fellow tea blogger Steph once lived there and wrote about visiting the tea room here. Hopefully, the next time I drive to Wisconsin to visit family I can stop in Indianapolis and see this piece of the past!