TEATIME TRANQUILITY & TREASURES ALACHUA, FL
Teatime Tranquility can become the place your dreams come true as your Wedding venue!
We offer complete packages encompassing our lush beautiful gardens with a trickling waterfall and a beautiful Gazebo.
There is a stately old Magnolia tree, wrap-around porches, and a large veranda that can be used to make your dreams come to life.
We also provide an Event Director included in any of our packages, She will listen to your wants and needs and make them just as you want.
Included in our packages you will find we have a beautiful Brides suite for the special lady of the day along with her bridesmaids to prepare for the day.
We didn’t forget the Groom and his Groomsmen They can also celebrate together as they prepare for the ceremony.
The rooms are separate and have different entrances so the groom will only see his bride as she descends the grand staircases.
Everyone here at Teatime Tranquility is determined to make sure everything will make this a magical experience for you and your loved ones.
EXPERIENCE AN ICONIC TIME IN A HISTORICAL QUEEN ANNE VICTORIAN MANSION.
Schedule your dream wedding or special event.
Willows Rest is in the heart of downtown Alachua, she is a stately 1902 Queen Victorian Mansion, sitting comfortably tucked away in Alachua’s historical district nestled among the Grand oaks in this quaint small town outside of Gainesville. She will rise up to greet you as you come near, we try to embody the legend of the 19th century while offering all the conveniences and comforts of 21st-century amenities. The old and new are seamlessly blended together for an aesthetic delight. When you step inside you will feel as though you have been transported back in time, to a quieter, gentler time.
Once inside you can ascend the grand staircase among the Master Craftsman’s special carved work and enter the Library where you can take a seat on the loveseat to read or just enjoy your tea The books beckon you to pick them up, from poetry, mystery, or romances they have them all to enjoy. if you are looking for a special unique gift you will find them in the Aspen Boutique. You will get lost in the antiques, and one-of-a-kind items. Most all the teacups and teapots throughout the mansion are for sale for your special someone.
Teatime Tranquility & Treasures Tea Shoppe occupies the ground floor where one can come sit and have a freshly brewed cup of specialty tea just for you. The gentle tranquil setting will give you a moment to take a breath…, while you take in all the sights and wonderful fragrances of freshly baked pastries, soups, and quiche.
WILLIAMS-LEROY HOUSE HISTORY
Furman E. Williams built the Williams-LeRoy house beginning in 1898. He completed the home in 1902. The families associated with this home are deeply embedded within the origins of Alachua, one of Florida’s oldest inhabited inland pioneer settlements.
Furman E. Williams, along with his brothers, played a major role in establishing the town of Alachua. His nephew, Henry N. LeRoy became an important businessman and local politician.
The Williams brothers found themselves with sizable portions of land in “the district of Elochaway” in the 1860s. Furman owned land where the new railroad established a depot in the 1880s. As people flocked to the depot, Williams sold off his land in one-acre plots, keeping the best for his own businesses, which ranged everywhere from phosphate mining to a general store to the Bank of Alachua.
Ida, Furman Williams’ future wife, moved to Alachua around 1866 from Kentucky. Ida was raising her 5-year-old nephew, Henry LeRoy, as the boy had been orphaned as a toddler. By the turn of the century, Furman and Ida Williams had married, and the couple began constructing their grand new home near the center of town, first appearing on the tax rolls in 1902. Along with Furman Smith, another nephew raised by Mr. Williams, Henry LeRoy and the Williams family moved into their new Queen Anne Victorian home along with William’s family servant, Candacy Wilson, a fifty-year-old widow.
While constructing the house, Williams had one huge ancient tree on his Newnansville property felled and milled for much of the heartwood pine used to construct the front lobby and grand staircase. The same wood remains in the home today.
People noticed the manor for its outstanding architecture even then. A 1903 report titled “Southern Industry ” stated, “The private residences of Alachua are among the best in the county and those of Mr. Williams, among others, have acetylene gas, water works, etc.”
Furman Williams suddenly died in 1905, the year of the home’s completion. On Friday, February 3 The Gainesville Daily Sun reported, “…F.E. Williams, a good man of Alachua, and leading citizen, passed away Thursday at his home in Alachua at 11:30 (AM). Deceased was one of the most widely known men in this section, if not the entire county. He was one of the leading businessmen and most enterprising spirits of this county, and the loss will be heavily felt. He was possessed of a gentle,Christian disposition and had many friends throughout the country. The funeral will be held from the residence Saturday morning at 9 o’clock, and the interment will be in Newnansville Cemetery. Friends of family invited.” In the cemetery, near the historical marker for the Newnansville Methodist Church, one can still read the epithet on Furman William’s grave:
Living he made the poor man’s heart glad And at his death the sorrowing ones more sad. Fortunately, good news soon returned to the Williams household as in June, 1905 Henry Leroy and Eliza Dell announced their marriage.
The Gainesville Daily Sun reported that “The groom is one of Alachua’s leading young men.
He is a nephew of Mrs. F.E. Williams and a member of the firm Williams Company. He is regarded very highly as a businessman and is destined to become quite prominent in business circles. The bride is one of Gainesville’s most popular young ladies. She is a general social favorite and will be greatly missed among the young people… The Sun, with other friends, extends congratulations.” In 1912, the young couple welcomed the arrival of their baby daughter, Blanche, who Mrs. Williams considered like a granddaughter.
Though as a young man Henry worked in his Uncle Furman’s mercantile business, after he passed away Henry became a stockholder, running William’s Company along with Jack Williams, Furman’s brother. Along with general merchandise, Mr. LeRoy’s business interests included farming and real estate properties. In 1921, he became active in his uncle’s old bank, the Bank of Alachua, taking on responsibilities as vice president. He served as Mayor of Alachua for four terms, continuing on as city commissioner into the 1930s.
Henry’s wife Eliza was known as a fashionable and active social member of the community, though her daughter Blanche was considered reserved and quiet. As a child, Blanche enjoyed playing in a backyard playhouse that was built as an exact-scale replica of the Williams’ home. Later, when the home’s outdoor kitchen burnt down, the Leroy’s became concerned the playhouse could be a fire hazard as well and had it dismantled.
Across the street, where the present Alachua Woman’s Club now stands, sometimes a travelling fair would set up it’s tents while parading trained circus animals up and down Main Street after arriving at the railroad depot. From the windows of her home’s third story tower, Blanche and her friends were also known to tease the young men of Alachua back in the days when Main Street was a dirt road.
Though she never married, Blanche did become involved in her father’s insurance agency. After Mr. LeRoy passed away in 1969, Daurice Bohannon, a close friend of the family, moved in to help Blanche take care of her father’s various business affairs. Daurice, who was also an insurance agent, had previously been married to C. B. Bohannon, a mayor of Gainesville and city commissioner during the 1950s. Some say it was after Mr. Bohannon took one too many business trips to Jacksonville that the couple went their separate ways.
Blanche and Daurice continued to run Mr. LeRoy’s old insurance agency through the 1970s. Blanche passed away in 1989, while Daurice lived in the house a while longer, passing away in 1996. The home was left to Daurice’s niece and husband, Joan and George Sterovich, who sold the home in 1998.
Today, the home is a premier wedding and event venue for the Alachua area and beyond. The home’s historical beauty remains a testimony to the past, and a sign of endurance to the present.