Rich Graessel and Jim Wheeler had many ideas for businesses – “a pocketful of dreams” – as Wheeler described it – since they met in 1996 as Pennsylvania State Police officers. They just didn’t have the money or the time during their 25 years of working together on the police force.

Now it’s tea time.

After long careers as Pennsylvania State Police officers, they shifted gears to take another career track, one that will bring a new vibe to the Southside when The Green House Tea Room opens its doors June 1.

The retired officers – Graessel in 2017 and Wheeler in 2019 – have taken an idea from dream to reality with the opening of The Green House Tea Room, a serene, historic space with a 1920s Great Gatsby style.

The tea room will offer two seatings by reservation only: 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 2 to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.

The tea room’s namesake is Charles H. Green, who built the mansion at 403 Cherokee St. in 1905.

“We wanted to give credit to him,” Graessel said.

Born in Bethlehem in 1865, Green operated the Charles H. Green Plumbing Co., located on Wyandotte Street in South Bethlehem. He was in business for 65 years – from 1889 to 1954, the year he retired. His plumbing and contracting jobs included Lehigh University and a number of mansions on West Third Street and Delaware Avenue.

Green served on the zoning board of appeals for 10 years, and was later appointed by city council to the Bethlehem Authority, earlier known as the Bethlehem Water Authority. Green was 92 when he died.

Graessel and Wheeler sat on a bench in The Green Room – one of the tea room’s three distinct dining areas – on a recent sunny May afternoon to discuss the impending opening. It was the same bench they sat on when first discussing the idea of opening the tea room.

Graessel owns the building and was redoing an apartment when a tenant was moving out when Wheeler stopped by and said, “Wow, you should do something with this.”

That sparked the thought in Graessel’s mind to restore the building and show it to people.

Then Graessel’s mother took his daughters to tea for their birthdays, and invited him to join them.

A few days later, Graessel was sitting on that bench in what would become The Green Room with a great business model he ran by Wheeler, who didn’t think twice about coming on board with the venture.

“What he described was spot-on,” Wheeler said of Graessel’s vision for the space.

Since the area is zoned residential, the process began of acquiring zoning permission from the city. Having attended hearings for 25 years as police officers, the pair was well prepared for the hearing with the zoning board, which granted permission in January 2024.

The tea room occupies the first floor of the mansion. There are three apartments upstairs and one downstairs.

They began construction April 1, 2024, a project that spanned more than a year.

“We restored the footprint of the house back to what it was,” said Graessel, who has owned Rich’s Carpentry and Remodeling since retiring from the state police. Graessel and Wheeler knocked out walls and remodeled the space to return it to its original glory, as it had been modified over the decades to make apartments.

The work included removing two bathrooms, two kitchens, recreating the original millwork of the house, and lots of painting, as the pair said there were layers of “landlord white paint” in the house, which had been used as apartments since 1970. They also constructed a new porch.

“The house is nestled in the hills of Southside Bethlehem, where many of the mansions have been converted into apartments,” Wheeler said.

Graessel and Wheeler have received a lot of positive feedback for the tea room. Many people have expressed their excitement about the project, and have commented how good it is to see the mansion restored and not cut up into apartments. People have often stopped by as the pair was working, so a lot of the excitement has been generated by word-of-mouth.

The tea room has three distinct rooms. The Empire Room is a stately space with an art deco style, a nod to the art deco style of The Empire State Building. “It’s a stately name and room,” Graessel said.

The Magnolia Room is named for a beautiful magnolia tree out back that is at least 60 years old. “It’s so pretty when it blooms in the spring,” Graessel said.

The Green Room’s name is a nod to Charles Green, and Graessel and Wheeler noted the green color scheme looks amazing with the wood.

Even the bathroom has a vintage vibe with Grazia tile imported from Italy and antique sconces.

The menu will be afternoon tea style with three-tier plates bursting with delectable finger sandwiches, scones, mini-desserts, mixed fruits, strawberries and other berries, honey goat cheese stuffed dates and many varieties of tea.

The staff includes Chef Jenny Bertram and Sara Downing, operations manager. Linda Stokes will provide desserts, and more staff will be hired. Graessel’s daughter Ava, who will be a junior at Lehigh Valley Academy, will work there in her spare time as pastry chef.

“Ava’s pastries are unbelievable,” Wheeler said, adding Ava took the Safe Serve classes with them.

Graessel, of Bethlehem, and Wheeler, of Kunkletown, had their families there for a gathering over the holidays. “The fireplace was lit, it snowed that day, and we had tea and cakes,” Wheeler said, noting everyone enjoyed the atmosphere. “Santa was here for the kids with candy canes. It looked like the North Pole exploded.”

They’ve planned a soft opening before June 1 as a thank you to family, friends and trades who have helped.

Graessel’s family includes wife Lori and daughters Ava and Brooke, who is studying nursing at Moravian University.

Wheeler and his wife Toni have two daughters: Cami, who is in the doctorate program at Lehigh University and teaching at Moravian University, her alma mater; and Jami, a midshipman who is a cadet at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis.

Wheeler grew up in Minersville, and had never spent too much time in Bethlehem, but now he loves it. “Bethlehem is an infectious place.”

“I love the city and being part of the commerce here,” Graessel said.

Wheeler said they want to try to stay local with everything they’re doing, patronizing and using local businesses for everything.

The two are looking to do pairings with other businesses in the future, such as wineries and distilleries for tastings, with their chef catering them. For now, though, they are concentrating on the opening.

“Our hope is to get many people in here to enjoy the atmosphere and the work we put into the building,” Graessel said. Wheeler agreed, voicing his hope that people will come and appreciate the history of the building.

“We hope people will appreciate what we’ve done and take it to another level,” Graessel said. “We enjoy serving people and seeing them enjoy themselves.”

And things have, in a way, really come full circle. Graessel recalled his neighbor owned the building in the mid-1980s. Graessel, then 13 or 14, would come over to rake, mow the lawn and trim the trees. “I thought he was lucky to own a building like that.”

Wheeler believed in Graessel’s vision from the beginning.

“I wouldn’t have embarked on this with anyone else,” he said. “We’re finally following through on a good idea.”