Black History - Mary A. Lee

Mary A. Lee

1862-1900
African American Restauranteur

Buried in Rosedale Cemetery, exact location unknown

(generic image of a couple dining generated using Bing AI)

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Advertisement from the Border Vignette, Feb. 18, 1899

A rather breathless ad in the December 5, 1897, issue of the Arizona Daily Star, a Tucson newspaper, described Mary as "...the famous caterer who is known to prepare the finest dinner, breakfast, or luncheon in Arizona…"
 
The aforementioned Mary A. Lee was a single, African American woman born about 1862. Nothing is known about her early life, or where she was born, but she apparently began her culinary career at the Luray Hotel in Denver, Colorado. 
 
She appears to have entered the Phoenix scene around 1892, when she partnered with Samuel W. Slade, also from Denver, to form a catering service called Lee & Slade. By April 17, 1892, the partners were managing the dining room at the Commercial Hotel in Phoenix. 
 
In 1895, Lee & Slade were running the Opera House café, with a menu featuring "game, fish, and oysters".  However, they had their sights set on something even bigger. When the newly-built Ford Hotel opened for business on November 1, 1895, Lee & Slade had secured a five-year lease for $18,000 to maintain a restaurant on the premises. However, it seems that the new hotel experienced some sort of shake-up in management as, about a month later, hotel manager L. B. Hayes resigned and was replaced by H. R. Borden.
 
It is not known whether this change had any bearing on Mary’s relationship with Samuel W. Slade, but the partnership dissolved in 1896, and Mary sold her inventory back to the hotel for the sum of $3000. Not long thereafter, she moved to Tucson where she opened the Orndorff Cafe. To assist her, she invited A. R. Wagner, another acquaintance from her Denver days, to act as head steward.
 
By 1899, Mary was running the Alhambra Café, advertising “Banquets and Afternoon Teas our Specialties”. She was also listed as the ‘manageress’ of the Williams Boarding House next door. Her success was remarkable for the time, as women were not often seen in managerial roles.
 
Mary’s career was cut short, however, when she contracted tuberculosis. She gave up her lease on the Alhambra Café early in June, 1900, after which her health declined rapidly. In mid-October, she moved back to Phoenix, where she expired on October 26, 1900. Mary A. Lee was buried in Rosedale Cemetery, although the exact location of her grave is no longer known.  
 
Although Mary’s probate record states that she had a balance of $325 in an account at the National Bank of Arizona in Tucson, as well as a trunk of personal effects in Phoenix, her executor later stated that these items could not be found.
 
© 2020 by Patricia Gault. Last revised 24 January 2024.

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