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One man’s obsession
The Tea-rific Teapot Museum in downtown Elloree is home to 5,001 teapots gathered from around the world by the late Julian Boland and curated by his wife Sybil. Penny Garret (pictured) now operates the museum as part of a thrift store benefitting a local animal rescue charity.
Photo By Milton Morris
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Method to the madness
Teapots in the museum are organized by theme, such as animals on a Noah’s ark, vegetables in a garden plot and cottages arranged like a village.
Photo By Milton Morris
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Good table manners
During high tea, guests are asked to select a proper hat to wear from the museum’s collection. Reservations are required if you want to sample the different teas, pastries and sandwiches offered by proprietor Penny Garrett.
Photo by Milton Morris
There’s an otherworldly feel to the tree-lined street with stately brick facades and perfectly polished plate glass windows. This is Cleveland Street, the main drag in Elloree, and beyond one of the storefronts is a collection like none other. The only two hints of what’s to come are the bright blue teapot sign in the window that reads “The Tea-rific Teapot Museum” and the small garden sprouting an array of ceramic teapots.
Through the front door into the teapot museum yields a fairly regular-seeming thrift store front. But this is only the beginning, as proprietor Penny Garrett sweeps you inward with her infectiously jolly personality.
It’s not surprising to find that Penny is an animal lover, which is why she’s here. She originally wanted to rent only the front of the building to open a nonprofit thrift store to benefit the animal rescue group For All Paws. The building used to be Boland’s Pharmacy, but the owners agreed to let her have the front of the building with just one caveat.
“They wanted me to keep the museum going,” says Garrett. “I didn’t focus on it at first, but everyone wanted to see the teapots, then I started expanding what we offered.”
Garrett took over the space in mid-2018, and didn’t get going on the museum until 2019. The store and the curious museum sat empty after Julian Boland, owner of Boland’s Pharmacy, passed away in 2014.
Boland was an avid teapot collector and started the museum to showcase his collection. He also had the enormous blue teapot installed on the back of the building in 2012. Sadly, as the building sat empty, the roof of the teapot caved in, though it’s still a sight to see from the outside of the building. The teapot is about the size of a two-car garage, though its interior is round, of course.
By design, Penny has left the entrance to the museum inconspicuous. Instead, the eye is drawn to a collection of hats intended for tea party-goers to wear. The entrance is a plain door in the far corner of the store that leads to a darkened room. As she turns on the lights with a dramatic flick of her wrist, she eagerly faces the new visitors. “People aren’t prepared for the magnitude, so I like to see people’s expressions as they come through the door,” says Garrett.
An endless sea of teapots (5,001 in total) lines all four walls. Teapots are gathered on carts throughout the space, teapots are grouped on tables, and teapots shaped like every animal in creation are nestled upon an enormous wooden ark in the middle of the room. As visitors make their way in, they stop every few inches to gawk and exclaim things like, “Wow, it’s a bald eagle teapot!” or “Who in the world would make a teapot shaped like lettuce?”
“It’s so well-done, and isn’t just a bunch of teapots sitting in a room, it’s a well-done display I cannot take credit for,” says Garrett. “Sybil Boland, his wife, did it and she always says it was his dream, and her nightmare!”
As people wind through the displays, they notice something even more unbelievable—an additional room even more brimming with teapots than the first. There’s a Christmas corner with dozens of Santa, snowman, candy cane and holly berry adorned teapots. A collection of children’s teapots that look impossibly small, and royal and presidential teapots showcase the more elegant items in the collection.
The carts scattered around the rooms hold a handful of teapots each, and each cart includes a flag. Mr. Boland and his children were all missionaries, so they gathered teapots from all around the world during their travels. There are teapots from Greece, Ireland, Japan and dozens more countries.
After the tour, visitors who made a reservation can enjoy high tea, which consists of a hot tea, an iced tea, three courses, and a selection of sweets at the end to round it out. The three courses include English scones with Devonshire cream, lemon curd and flavored butter; a teacup of soup; and a tiered tray of savories such as chicken salad on a hand-baked croissant, mini quiches and the prettiest finger sandwiches. The final round brings mini pies and cakes, chocolate cream puffs, and a selection of decadent chocolate-dipped fruits. The selections vary each day, and Garrett needs to have at least a day’s notice for a high tea reservation.
All proceeds from the museum, tea room and thrift store go to support animal rescue efforts. For All Paws divides the profits between programs to help senior citizens keep pets in their homes, an emergency vet fund and need-based grants for local animal rescue groups—a tea-rific cause indeed.
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Get There
The Tea-rific Teapot Museum is located at 2732 Cleveland Street in downtown Elloree.
Hours: Museum tours are offered from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Reservations required for high tea.
Admission: Museum tours $6 per person; tour and tea $12 per person; tour and high tea $30 per person.
Details: Call (803) 983-3210 or see the museum’s Facebook page.