Stuart “Stu” Ireland moved to Vermont in 1962. He settled in Stowe and built the original Town and Country Resort (now Outward Bound) on the Mountain Road.
In 1964 Ireland would purchase a swimming club with an indoor swimming pool that was adjacent to the Town and Country. He transformed that into a nightclub called the Bunny Club. As the name implies, it was patterned after the Playboy clubs. In addition to the nightclub, the facility included a sauna, tanning and massage rooms, and of course the indoor swimming pool. The dining area had a stream running through it!
And then there were the bunnies. Ireland ran an ad in New York City where he interviewed 64 potential bunnies. From those he hired seven women, three of whom were from Florida! By the way, those Florida girls were quoted as saying they looked forward to trading in their water skis for snow skis.
The outfits for the bunnies were almost identical to the Playboy bunnies right down to the ears and fluffy tails! The Times Argus on December 22, 1964 announced the arrival of the bunnies in Burlington. They arrived at the airport via Mohawk airlines and the picture shows them descending the steps from the Mohawk plane … in their bunny outfits! Were we supposed to believe they flew in those outfits? Plus Burlington in December is not usually bunny outfit weather!
At some point the name of the club morphed into the Sno Bunny Club. I found ads for the club under both names. My theory is that may have been a way to distinguish it from the Playboy Bunny Clubs. I have heard rumors that Ireland’s club may have drawn the attention of the Playboy empire’s lawyers so a subtle name change may have helped fend them off. I was unable to find any proof of my theory.
In 1969 the Bunny Club became the Gaslight Lounge and the bunny era was over.
Regular reader Norma Stonecliffe had the answer to last week’s trivia that it was the Town and Country that hosted the Sno Bunny Club. Norma knew Stu Ireland and had even worked at the Town and Country although not as a bunny!
Stu Ireland’s nightclub wasn’t the only major enhancement he made to the Town and Country. In 1967 Ireland’s background in construction would lead him into building a ski hill behind the resort. In the process he would also create a pond. The slope was 450 feet long and 60 feet wide with an 80 foot vertical rise. Ireland installed a T-Bar on the hill.
The area opened to the public on February 17, 1968 and offered night skiing and skating. Frank Springer-Miller was the first skier on what became known as “Ireland’s Mountain.” The area would be short-lived since Ireland sold Town and Country in 1970 and the new owners weren’t interested in running a ski area. They offered the T-Bar to the Town of Stowe and arranged to have “Ireland’s Mountain” bulldozed back into the pond from which it came! That T-Bar would find its way to Marshall Hill, but that’s a story for another time.
Stu Ireland would go on to found the S.D. Ireland company and run a variety of businesses in the Burlington area. He passed away in 2010 at the age of 79.
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