History
The Dog Team Tavern was originally constructed in the 1920s by Sir Wilfred and Lady Anne Grenfell. The Dog Team Tavern was opened in 1936 as a tea house and outlet for handicrafts from Newfoundland and Labrador. Earlier in 1931, Sir Wilfred and Lady Anne retired to Charlotte, Vermont, where they built Kenloch House. 1934 saw them opening a Dog Team Tea House in Ferrisburg, Vermont, and about that time they opened houses in Oxford and Guilford in Connecticut. There is a reference to one also being opened in Maine, but where that was has not been found out as yet. When Eben and Catherine Joy purchased the Dog Team Tavern from the International Grenfell Association (of New York City) in 1946 they opened it as a restaurant, adding a bar/tavern later when they were able to obtain a license in "dry" New Haven.
Eben Joy, and his second wife, Eileen, sold the Dog Team Tavern to Andrew Golbert of Burlington, Vermont (now of Essex Junction), in 1978. Andrew Golbert sold the DTT to Chris Hesslink and Robert Mahoney in 1987 with Robert Mahoney leaving the business around 1996/97 when Chris Hesslink reorganized and continued the business until it burned on Friday, September 1, 2006. Hesslink's body was recovered from the fire.
The Dog Team has catered to celebrities such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Robert Frost, Charles Lawton, Neil Diamond, Michael Eisner and more. Originally, the staff lived upstairs as the restaurant was only open in the summers. Later, it was open all year. There was a small building next door which of late has been used as a gift shop; but in previous times it was known as The Dog Team Playhouse, and several shows were put on there.
The tavern was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002, and it appears to be still listed on the Register, despite the fire.
Among the treasures lost in the 2006 fire were a Grenfell overcoat donated by Arlene LaFave, a Grenfell snowsuit for a child, a huge collection of old political buttons, a beautiful Victorian period dollhouse, an old handpainted sign for orange soda, the hide of a wallaby and the head of a bear, two Grenfell throw pillows with the face of a husky embroidered on each one, original posters and articles detailing Sir Grenfell's work and lectures, two oil paintings by different artists of the restaurant, one painting of Sir Wilfred Grenfell, a marble statue of snow drifts with a little dogsled and dogs and at least a dozen unique Grenfell silk mats.
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