Bill Wilson House

Wilson House
Location Jct. of Village St. and Mad Tom Rd., Town of Dorset, East Dorset, Vermont
Coordinates 43°14′22″N 73°0′33″W / 43.23944°N 73.00917°WCoordinates: 43°14′22″N 73°0′33″W / 43.23944°N 73.00917°W
Area less than one acre
Built 1852
Architectural style Greek Revival
Governing body Private
NRHP Reference # 95001427[1]
Added to NRHP December 13, 1995

The Bill Wilson House in East Dorset, Vermont is the birthplace and living memorial of Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson. With 14 guestrooms and a conference room the non-profit bed and breakfast is a center for recovery seminars and regular AA and ALANON meetings.

History

The building was constructed and opened as a hotel in 1852 in the small Vermont marble quarry village. The owners were the Griffith family. William (Bill) Griffith Wilson was born on November 26 of 1895 on the ground floor behind the bar of the hotel during a snow storm. After 2 years he moved to Rutland, Vt. until the divorce of his parents. Then, at the age of 11, Bill and his sister, Dorothy, returned to East Dorset to live with their maternal grandparents, the Griffiths. In 1987 the building had been vacant for several years and Ozzie Bonnie bought it in order to turn it into a living memorial to Bill W. Since then the building underwent constant renovations and is now a functioning guest house and conference center. Bill W. is buried close by in a cemetery next to his wife Lois and the Griffith family.

Room 9 of the hotel is believed to be the room where Bill and Lois stayed during one of their visits.

Griffith Library

Nearby stands the Griffith Library where Bill lived with his sister and his grandparents. Today it is a museum and a library dedicated to Bill Wilson who is the author of the book Alcoholics Anonymous, the 12 steps and many other books about recovery from alcoholism.

The Griffith Library is a museum and living memorial for Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill W. Here Bill W. lived as a young boy with his grand parents after his parents divorced and both moved away. It is at this house where he had many important childhood experiences such as building a boomerang from scratch and building a radio. At the nearby Emerald Lake he met his future wife Lois Wilson (activist).[2]

Prior to the development of the Wilson birthplace Bill and Lois Wilson frequently came back to East Dorset staying at the Aerie inn which is in the same local as the Wilson homestead. The Wilsons spent summers at the Aerie Inn from 1960 up until his year of death in the early 1970s. The Wilsons did not have any children which led them to become close to the owners and builders of the Aerie inn. The room of their choice to live in was room 6 which to this day has been preserved. The property fell into disrepair up until 2003 when it was purchased with the intent of keeping the integrity of the Wilsons memory intact.

References

  1. ↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2010-07-09.
  2. ↑ Pass it on; p. 17-36

External links