The Hatching Cat of Gotham

Before I tell you the story about the feline wedding of Don Dai and the Quakeress, I must share some history about the Plaza Hotel, and how it came to be a pet-friendly hotel…

In November 1907, shortly after the Plaza Hotel had opened, an actress named Mrs. Patrick Campbell traveled from Liverpool to New York to embark on her second American theater tour. Mrs. Campbell arrived in New York City with her daughter, her son, and her tiny monkey griffon, Pinky Panky Poo.

Fred Sterry, managing director of the new Plaza Hotel, realized that rejecting Pinky Panky Poo would cause a public relations nightmare for the new hotel. And so he decided right on the spot to allow small pets at the Plaza.

Before long, all the high-society ladies of New York City were bringing their little lap dogs to the Plaza Hotel for afternoon tea.

One year later, an artist named Princess Lwoff-Parlaghy took advantage of the hotel’s liberal pet policy. Traveling to New York to paint portraits of famous Americans, she reserved a large 14-room suite at the Plaza Hotel for her own personal menagerie, including a small Pomeranian dog, an Angora cat, a guinea pig, an owl, an ibis, two small alligators, a small bear named Teddy, and a lion cub named Goldfleck.

Possibly encouraged by hearing these stories about the pet-friendly hotel, a wealthy and well-known cat fancier from Brighton, Massachusetts, decided that the Plaza Hotel was the perfect setting for a feline wedding. I’m not sure the bride and groom cats were crazy about the marriage, but it was pure marketing genius.

The Feline Wedding of Don Dai and the Quakeress

In December 1912, Mrs. George Bailey Brayton (aka Helen C. Brayton) invited the owners of cats “of aristocratic temperament” to a wedding of her pet cats, Don Dai and the Quakeress, described as “a tabby of royal blood.” The feline wedding would take place during the Silver Society Cat Show in the Grand Ballroom of the Plaza Hotel.

Don Dai was a 13-month-old, prize-winning English silver chinchilla cat of British ancestry. His cat parents were also show cats named Don II and Donette.

Mrs. Brayton purchased the cat for $150 and shipped him back to New York on the Wilson-Furness Leyland steamer Cambrian in his very own stateroom. On board the ship, Don Dai slept in a velvet-lined basket, had his own steward, and “partook of cream and only the daintiest morsels.”

The story of the feline wedding was covered extensively by newspapers across the country.

The Brooklyn Daily Times had tremendous fun with the tale, suggesting that the cats were married by the Reverend Thomas Meeyow at the Church of the Holy Cats; maids of honor were Miss Fluffy Milksop and Miss Silky Hairball; ushers were Thomas Yowler and Thomas Mouser; and the honeymoon was an extended tour of all the back fences between New York City and Niagara Falls.

The Jasper County Democrat (Missouri) also had fun, reporting that Don Dai “had purred the question” to the beautiful Quakeress.

The Birmingham News (Alabama) questioned whether the British cat would be strong enough to endure “the rough and tumble combat” with Yankee cats or if he would be able to avoid being crushed by a street car, and the Messenger-Inquirer (Kentucky) gave the story this headline: “More Idiotic Dealings by the Silly Rich.” 

A Brief History of the Plaza Hotel

The land bounded by Fifth and Sixth Avenues and 57th and 60th Streets was originally owned by the Corporation of New York (ie, the city itself). In 1854, the city subdivided this land into lots and began selling them off. The parcels transferred hands several times, but there was no serious attempt to develop the property until the 1880s.

In 1883, the property was acquired by James Campbell and John Duncan Phyfe, who proposed a nine-story apartment hotel for the site. Construction began in 1883, but there is no account of the building ever being completed.

Five years later, the New York Life Insurance Company acquired the property and hired McKim, Mead & White to complete the building as a hotel. The hotel had a fashionable address, albeit, the area was still quite remote in the late 19th century. The eight-story Renaissance-Revival building of brick and brownstone is pictured below.

In 1902, Bernhard Beinecke and Harry S. Black purchased the hotel with plans of expanding it. Because the foundation could not support any additional stories, the men approached John Gates, one of the wealthiest men in the country at the time, to finance a new hotel.

Gates agreed to back the project with one caveat: Fred Sterry had to be the hotel’s managing director (yes, the Fred Sterry who allowed Pinky Panky Poo to stay at the new hotel in 1907).

Demolition of the old hotel began June 1905, with construction starting two months later. The new $12.5 million Plaza Hotel officially opened on October 1, 1907–Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt was reportedly the first guest to sign the register.

Five years later, a feline wedding took place in the Grand Ballroom at the luxury hotel.