Westminster dog show and Madison Square Garden – it’s hard to think of one without the other. But back in the day, the dog show extravaganza actually got its start back at the Westminster Hotel, in New York City. In the late 1870s, a group of hunting sportsmen who routinely met there created a kennel club to showcase purebred dogs. The name of the hotel, and its association with the dog show competition, has stuck long after its demolition in 1909. During the hotel’s heyday, Charles Dickens stayed there, as well as the American singer Clara Louise Kellogg, American realist […]