Couple buys Hartness House Inn

The Hartness House Inn, once the grande dame of Springfield inns and restaurants, has new investors and management.
http://rutlandherald.com/article/20141210/NEWS02/712109902

Published December 10, 2014 in the Rutland Herald Couple buys Hartness House Inn By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer SPRINGFIELD — The Hartness House Inn, once the grande dame of Springfield inns and restaurants, has new investors and management. Jules LaVoie, 51, fell in love with the Hartness House Inn last year, when he and his partner got married there. So LaVoie said Tuesday he jumped at the chance this fall to manage the historic inn, which was once the home of former Vermont Gov. James Hartness, an inventor and businessman. Hartness built the house in 1903-04 and it is on the National Register of Historic Places. LaVoie received a new liquor license for the inn, which had been owned by Spring Valley Partners LLC., whose officers were Alex Leonenko and his wife Alla Deugaeva. They had owned the inn since July 2003. LaVoie said that the inn has new investors, including himself. And it was a new corporation, Minimax Four Houses LLC, that received the liquor license, according to Springfield Town Clerk Barbara Courchesne. The Hartness House had fallen on hard times and it has not had a liquor license for a year. Minimax paid the inn’s overdue property taxes and the remainder of its delinquent water and sewer bill — totaling just under $50,000. With the taxes paid off, the liquor license was quickly approved at the Select Board meeting Monday. LaVoie has been working in the hospitality industry since he was 15 years old, and he has a long resume of managing Holiday Inns in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. He said he and his spouse got married at the Hartness House in October 2013, and that they had been weekend Vermonters for the past four years. “We first rented an apartment in Weston and then a log home in Chester,” he said. LaVoie and his spouse, Bradford Gagnon, are moving into the owner’s quarters at the inn. “This is our dream come true,” he said, noting he had gotten to know the previous operators, Alex Leonenko and his wife Alla Deugaeva. Leonenko died of lung cancer this fall, LaVoie said, and he was approached by Deugaeva to take over the management of the inn. “She called me and said she had some investors that were very interested in investing in the property,” he said. According to the Vermont secretary of state’s office, the Minimax Four Houses LLC is based in Canada in Calgary, Alberta. LaVoie said he planned on getting involved in the community and transferring his Rotary membership to the Springfield club, and joining the Chamber of Commerce and Springfield on the Move, the downtown revitalization group. And he told the Select Board that he hoped to lure the annual Festival of the Trees back to the inn next Christmas season. “It’s a big beast that needs a lot of love,” he said. LaVoie said it was the inn’s rich history and its late Victorian architecture that impressed him. Hartness, an executive with the former Jones & Lamson Machine Co., held more than 120 machine patents. He was also an aviation pioneer and established the first airport in Vermont, which bears his name. Hartness also brought the world-famous aviator Charles Lindbergh to Springfield in 1927, shortly after his record-breaking flight across the Atlantic. LaVoie said he grew up in old mill towns all over New England as his father was the first French Canadian mill general manager. A graduate of St. Michael’s College, he says he likes the fact that Springfield is trying to “re-invent” itself. “Thank you, I’m thrilled,” he told the board Monday night. TopNews2014