Stepping Stones
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North elevation, 2008
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Location: | Katonah, NY |
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Nearest city: | Peekskill |
Area: | 8 acres (3.2 ha) |
Built: | 1941 |
Architectural style: | Colonial Revival |
Governing body: | Stepping Stones Foundation |
NRHP Reference#: | 04000705 |
Added to NRHP: | July 16, 2004[1] |
Stepping Stones is the historic home of Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill W. and his wife Lois Burnham Wilson, founder of Al-Anon/Alateen, in Bedford Hills, New York. It is a Colonial Revival structure built in 1920.
The house at 62 Oak Road, Katonah, New York is on the state and National Register of Historic Places listings in Westchester County, New York. It is open for tours by appointment since 1988 after the death of Mrs. Wilson. [2] An estimated 90 percent of visitors to the house are members of a 12 Step group.
The New York Times quoted the executive director:
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The Wilsons bought the house on 1.7 acres in 1941 more than five years after Bill W. took his last drink. Lois Wilson later founded Al-Anon there.
The desk on which Bill wrote Alcoholics Anonymous ("The Big Book", the principal text of AA) resides at "Wit's End," the office retreat he built on the property. Bill, after moving to Stepping Stones, wrote three more books at the desk: The 12 Steps and 12 Traditions, As Bill Sees It, and AA Comes of Age.
The famous kitchen table Bill mentions in several accounts of his meeting with Ebby Thacher at Bill's former home in 182 Clinton Street, Brooklyn is also on display. Amongst the memorabilia are letter from Carl Jung to Bill Wilson, and a photograph of President Richard Nixon, receiving the millionth copy of the Big Book. [2]
Bill died in 1971 and Lois died in 1988. They left no children and the house was turned over to the Stepping Stones Foundation which maintains it and conducts the tours. In 2007, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, added Stepping Stones to its new Women’s Heritage Trail, in recognition to Lois. Every June, as per a tradition started by Wilsons in 1952, hundreds of A.A. members arrive for the annual AA family groups picnic. [2]