Archive for February, 2016

Although the first National Cat Show at Madison Square Garden II in May 1895 is often cited as the first cat show in America, there were actually quite a few cat shows in New York City, including the Cat Congress at the New American Museum on Broadway.

In 1891, Hurlbut Chapman, a once prominent lawyer from Rye, New York, leased the old John C. Bergen homestead at 972 Flatbush Avenue, at the corner of Avenue A (today’s Albemarle Road). There, he opened the Whitby Kennels, where he boarded the dogs and cats of wealthy New Yorkers.