Georgette’s Tea Room was a meeting place for elegant local activities and a guest house for black celebrities and entertaining during the late 1940s and 1950s. Pictured above is the late Jazz vocalist, Billie Holiday, visiting a group of teachers during a meeting they were having at the tea room.

Owned by Georgette Scott Campbell, the tea room in Brownsub (also known as Brownsville) was a swank setting for black organizations and its offered black entertainers a comfortable, secluded retreat from the overcrowding in Overtown.

Following Miami’s incorporation in 1896, restrictive land deeds confined most of Dade County black populations to “Colored Town”, a then segregated quarter on the northwest section of Downtown Miami, now known as Overtown. During the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, Overtown was a hub for black entertainment featuring stars such as Marion Anderson, Bessie Smith, Nat “King” Cole and Billie Holiday at local clubs and theaters in the black community.

After World War II, many black entertainers became popular on Miami Beach, but because of segregationist policies they were not allowed to stay in the hotels on the beach. There were several Overtown hotels, owned and operated by blacks, but Georgette’s Tea Rooms provided a getaway from the bustle of Downtown.

Campbell first came to Miami in 1917 from her birthplace, Waycross, Georgia. She and her sister Willie owned and operated a restaurant, the Royal Cafe, in Overtown. In 1934 she moved to New York City. She opened a tea room in Harlem and became a well known and popular hostess there. In 1940, she moved back to Miami and bought three lots in Brown’s subdivision. The thirteen-room house, located at 2540 N.W. 51^st Street, was built according to her plans, with the architecture in the Streamline Modern Style and the furnishings in the lavish, English Tudor style. Famous guests such as the Ink Spots, Billie Holiday and Nat “King” Cole once ate and slept at Georgette’s Tea Room.