Catamount Tavern

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The Catamount Tavern is located in Old Bennington, Vermont. Originally known as Fay’s House, it is marked now by a granite and copper statue placed in 1896. Originally owned by Stephen Fay, it was built in 1769 and burned in 1871. During the tavern's 102 years of existence, it housed many important events.

One important event was the public hanging of a Loyalist in the American Revolution, David Redding. Redding was arrested for the theft of one Farmer Simmon's horses, and while under guard on his way to Albany, he seized the gun of one of the guards and made his escape. But he was re-arrested very soon. This time he was not taken to Albany for trial, but rather to Bennington. Redding was sentenced to a hanging to take place in the field across from the Catamount Tavern. A large crowd gathered and were anxious to witness the hanging, but they would have to wait. The hanging was postponed due to the acquired knowledge of law that a local merchant, John Burnham, had accumulated. John Burnham broadcast his opinion that the trial of Redding had been illegal since he had been tried before a jury of six persons instead of twelve, according to British law. Colonel Ethan Allen was in town and provided solace when he mounted a stump and advised the multitude to depart peaceably to their homes and to return the day fixed for the execution in the act of the govenor and council, adding with an oath, and according to Dr. John Spargo who wrote a book on the hanging which can be found in the Bennington Museum library, "you shall see somebody hung, for if Redding is not hung, I will be hung myself." Upon this assurance, the uproar ceased and the crowd dispersed. Redding was sentenced to hang on June 11, 1778 and his bones, after many years of being used for research and being kept in a drawer, were laid to rest 200 years later in the Old First Church Cemetery.

The name Catamount Tavern came about when Grantees from New Hampshire posted a stuffed catamount on the tavern's signpost to repel the New Yorkers who claimed their land. The Catamount served as headquarters for the Green Mountain Boys while making their plans against the New Yorkers and the British. Ethan Allen planned the capture of Fort Ticonderoga here and John Stark planned British General Burgoynes defeat here which turned out to be successful in the famous Battle of Bennington. The Catamount was also the meeting place of Vermont's only form of government then, the Vermont Council of Safety.