Every dog loves a good tree.
On Saturday, you can bid on one that will have your pet wishing you “Merry Christmas” for the rest of his shaggy life.
Seven doggy-trees– a Terrier tree, a Boxer tree, a Labrador tree, a Labrador puppy tree, a pair of Scotty trees trimmed with Tartan ribbon, and a Salute to Our Heroes tree–will be among auction items at the annual MARDOG cocktail party and tricky tray (tricky tree?) on Dec. 4 at lovely Glynnallyn mansion in Morris Township.
MARDOG–the Morris Area Responsible Dog Owners Group–is a nonprofit that raises money for dog parks and scholarships for veterinary students.
Its president, Morristown Councilwoman Alison Deeb, hand-decorated the doggy-trees with her sister, Leslie Carter.
Alison also will be donating a year’s supply of pet chow to Noah’s Ark, a pet adoption center in Ledgewood. She won the food as a finalist in the Beneful Wagworld Dream Dog Park contest.
Saturday’s festivities run from 6 pm to 8 pm. Alison promises wine, hors d’oeouvres, desserts and a chance to win such specialty items as a Jets football, food baskets, dinner gift certificates to area restaurants and a golf package.
And the backdrop is straight from the Gilded Age, when Madison’s “Millionaires’ Row” was called the “Newport of the West.”
Here’s Alison’s description of Glynallyn:
Glynallyn is one of Morris Township’s few remaining Gilded Age-era mansions. It was built between 1913-1917 as a private home for George Marshall Allen, heir to the Old Crow Whiskey fortune, and his wife Grace and daughter Lorraine.
Mr. Allen admired Compton Wynyates in Warwickshire, England, the ancestral home of Sir William Compton (c.1482- 1528), a close friend of King Henry VIII. He sent renowned New York architect Charles I. Berg to England to study the castle and model his fantasy home after it. George Marshall Allen chose the Canfield Road site in Convent Station because it resembled the rolling countryside of Warwickshire.
Just off Madison Avenue, the location was once a part of “Millionaire’s Row,” an area once known as “Newport of the West.”
Over its 95-year history, Glynallyn was the Corporate Headquarters of the General Drafting Company for 40 years and became again a private residence when Chris and Melitta Shields purchased the house in 1997.
Situated amidst 7.5 acres, Glynallyn has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1987 and has been repeatedly referred to as one of the finest Elizabethan Tudor houses in the country. The mansion features intricate stone and plaster work, hundreds of stained glass windows and hidden surprises around every corner.
A vaulted room called the dungeon, with heavy steel studded doors acquired from Dannemore Prison, a huge fireplace and a Shakespearean stage were extensively used to entertain from informal Halloween parties to amateur theatricals.
Tickets to the event are $25/person or $45/couple if you register by December 1 by calling 973-644-0188 or emailing mardog@optonline.net. Tickets are $35/person after December 1.