#PeeBreak
Image from the Library of Congress
Meeting at Coffee House, New York, 1915
Tea and coffee houses often hosted women’s club meetings - they were seen as safe, genteel places for women to gather in public, and also to avoid alcohol. Tea houses, along with luxury hotels and theaters, were the first institutions to provide places for women to use the bathroom while out in public, allowing women to stay away from home for more than a few hours at a time.