Teahouse on the Neck, Ocean Avenue, Marblehead, Massachusetts
If you're living in a home that was built for a tea company executive and avid sailor, your decorating choices are pretty much set for you. That goes double when you own a much-photographed teahouse that's sitting prettily on a point of a peninsula. The teahouse is there in tribute to another avid sailor, Sir Thomas Lipton, as in Lipton Tea. After Lipton established a presence in the U.S., his company hired W. Gardner Barker (1913-1990) of Marblehead, Massachusetts. { source } It's unlikely that Barker ever met Lipton personally since he was only 18 when Lipton died, but they both were involved in the America's Cup yacht races that took place from New York to Marblehead. After Lipton made five unsuccessful attempts to win it, he decided he would get his name on the trophy by donating the trophy. { Lipton's Cup trophy c. 1907 } After Barker gained an executive position at Lipton, that cup must have stayed on his mind. He was one of the geniuses behind Lipton's Cu
