THE RHODE ISLAND CENTURY

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Flora Dutton: the working woman's friend

Flora E. Dutton was fresh out of Boston's Simmons College when she sought career advice from her college dean, Sarah Louise Arnold.

The dean's advice: Educated women don't go into business. Why don't you consider teaching?

Forty years later, after she was a rich and respected restaurant owner, Dutton said that was the best advice she never took.

By the late 1920s, Dutton had built a small restaurant empire in Providence, but was best known for Miss Dutton's Green Room, a local landmark at 44 Washington St.

The 1920s marked the heydey of Providence's downtown. Shoppers thronged the department stores -- Shepard's, the Outlet, Gladdings, Cherry & Webb. Moviegoers had more than 16 theaters to choose from.

It was a period of change in women's roles. Women, who won the right to vote in 1920, were streaming into the work force. By 1925, 27 of the 296 restaurants in Providence were owned by women.

Dutton was a feminist as well as a businesswoman. She aimed to provide affordable, nutritious food for the new army of women making their own way in the world.

Dutton's restaurants were distinctive, with cut flowers on the tables. Fresh fruits and vegetables were trucked in from Dutton's 75-acre farm in Swansea.

Prices were reasonable; the most popular meal was the luncheon special. It sold for 75 cents in the 1950s. The waitresses were known as the ''friendliest and cheeriest in town.'' Employees were certainly loyal: in 1954, Miss Dutton's still had two cooks who had worked with her since the early 1920s. Unusual in the restaurant business, Dutton established a pension plan for her workers.

Dutton became a wealthy and respected member of the city's business community. She was president of the Rhode Island Restaurant Association and chairwoman of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce's Transit Committee.

A vigorous sportswoman who fished for trout and salmon, she owned a fishing camp in Maine's Rangeley lakes and spent every August there. Dutton threw sumptuous dinner parties but stayed in shape by exercise and limiting herself to 1,400 calories a day.

In retirement, she ran her farm and presided over the May breakfasts and church suppers at the First Christian Congregational Church in Swansea.

She died in August, 1984 at age 97.