Mural inside Tea & Tarts
[B]angor, Maine, probably doesn’t hold any significance for you—that is, unless you’re a horror fan. Stephen King, the author of such horror classics as It and Pet Sematary, has resided in the town since 1979, and based many of his works on the peculiarities he finds surrounding himself. Now, Bangor is home to another supernatural delight, the Tea & Tarts tea house.
A two-year-long renovation of Tea & Tart’s historic space revealed unexpected surprises from the past. Intricate, Greek-inspired tilework was inexplicably found under a layer of drywall that illustrated several local academia landmarks and a tiled image depicting a bust of Socrates. Historians have so far been unable to pinpoint who or why the tile was installed, but say the tiles date from sometime in the 1910s or ‘20s, when the building was constructed. While much of the tilework was unsalvageable, the renovation also revealed well-preserved red brick walls and hardwood oak floors.
Now, Tea & Tarts fills the historic space with the lingering scents of 33 varieties of tea, as well as vegetarian cuisine. Guests can take in the space’s storied past, cathedral-style ceilings, and floor-to-ceiling mural of the tea party scene from Alice in Wonderland, while satiating their appetite with a signature lemon and lavender tart or a cup of one of the shop’s three chai blends.
