Stepping Stones – the Historic Home of Bill and Lois
Wilson
Stepping Stones is the historic home of Bill and Lois
Wilson, who lived in the house from 1941 until their deaths in 1971 and 1988,
respectively. Bill Wilson was a
co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and the author of four books, including
Alcoholics Anonymous (1939). In Alcoholics
Anonymous, aka “the Big Book”,
The 12 Steps and AA enabled, and continues to
enable, millions of people around the world to achieve and sustain permanent
sobriety and helped reshape the general public’s perception of alcoholics. Lois Wilson was the co-founder of Al-Anon
Family Groups, the self-help group for family members of alcoholics and the
founder of Alateen, a group for the children of alcoholics. Al-Anon and Alateen have also grown to reach
international membership, with chapters in 115 countries.
Bill Wilson (1895-1971) was one of the two founders
of AA and his personal experiences and leadership were critical to the success
of the organization. After years of
severe drinking and numerous failed attempts to stop, Bill was considered to be
a hopeless alcoholic. He tried spiritual
groups and detoxing in hospitals, but inevitably
returned to drinking. His wife was told
he would likely die or have to be committed to an asylum. While in a private hospital, he had a
spiritual experience that removed his compulsion to drink. His experience is
reflected in the second of the twelve steps, acknowledgement of a higher
power.
Bill Wilson anonymously authored four books on
alcoholism: Alcoholics Anonymous (1939), Twelve
Steps and Twelve Traditions (1953), Alcoholics
Anonymous Comes of Age (1957) and The
Alcoholics Anonymous defined alcoholism as a
disease of the body, mind and spirit and changed the public’s perception of
alcoholics and alcoholism.
Before the publication of Alcoholics Anonymous, alcoholism was regarded as the result of a
character defect or moral weakness.([4]) Groups such as the Oxford Group, a Christian
reformist movement that Bill had joined seeking a way to control his drinking,
regarded alcohol as a sin; the remedy for alcoholism was to pray for
forgiveness. Medicine offered little
help as facilities were rare and “treatment” meant drying out at a sanitarium
for those who could afford it, or at a state mental hospital or jail for those
who could not.([5]) This rarely resulted in permanent
sobriety. As late as 1941, the popular
press noted “it [alcoholism] remains one of the great unsolved public-health
enigmas.”([6]) Public stigma and the lack of viable
treatment options combined to prevent alcoholics from seeking help and
embarking upon the path to recovery.
Alcoholics Anonymous offered an explanation of
why alcoholics drank based upon unbiased scientific investigation rather than
facile character judgments and provided a practical treatment program and a
community of support that has helped millions attain lasting sobriety. In 1951, the American Public Health
Association presented the Lasker award to AA “in
recognition of its unique and highly successful approach to that age-old public
health and social problem, alcoholism…In emphasizing alcoholism as an illness,
the social stigma associated with this condition is being blotted out…”([7]) As of the year 2000, 20 million copies of the
book have been sold.
Lois Wilson (1891-1988) founded Al-Anon Family
Groups for the family members of alcoholics.
In the early days of AA family members – typically, wives, as most AA’s
member were men - of alcoholics attended AA meetings with the alcoholic. While this approach helped the wives support
their husbands, the AA meetings did not provide a forum for the wives to
discuss and share their own experiences and feelings.
By 1940 Lois began organizing separate meetings that
became known as “Family Group Meetings.”
Lois understood first-hand that friends and family members of alcoholics
have to deal with their own issues related to the alcoholism and sobriety of
their loved ones. She advocated the use
of an adapted version of AA’s 12 Steps to solve them.
In 1951 Lois and her friend
The
Stepping Stones was the
During that period they relocated, by Lois’ count,
51 times.([13]) Through the help of an acquaintance, Bill and
Lois purchased and moved into Stepping Stones in April, 1941.([14]) Bill lived at Stepping Stones until his death
in 1971 and Lois until her death in 1988.
Many of Bill’s writings, including three of his four books, were written
in his Studio behind the Main House. He
devised and wrote the Twelve Traditions - the framework that ensured AA’s
long-term success– in the Studio. Lois
founded Al-Anon Family Groups in the library of the Main House in 1951. While
living at Stepping Stones, numerous friends and acquaintances through their
work with AA and Al-Anon visited and stayed there. Knowing the importance of Stepping Stones to
the AA community, Lois built a separate building in the early 1980's to house
an archives, office, and apartment and, upon her death, the property was turned
over to the Stepping Stones Foundation, who operates the property as a
museum. People associated with AA from
all over the world come to Stepping Stones to pay homage to these two
remarkable people.
Stepping Stones is on the State and National
Registers of Historic Places, and the NYS Women’s Heritage Trail. The house operates as a museum and is open to
visitors Monday-Saturday at
Along with offering tours and special events at the
historic site, The Stepping Stones Foundation’s operational priority is preserving
the contents of the historic archives, which includes 10,000 objects, 2,500
textiles, 5,000 written materials, 1,000 photos and other ephemera. In addition, Stepping Stones is developing
educational programming to bring the story of Bill and Lois Wilson to the
public.
Bibliography
Archives Scrapbooks, Vol. 1 - 1939-1942, Vol. 2 -
1943. Offset reproduction of newspaper clippings
about A.A. 18 1/2" x 16 1/2".
Alexander,
Jack. “Alcoholics Anonymous: Freed Slaves of Drink, Now They Free Others.” Saturday
Evening
Bill W.” Life Magazine 13, no. 12 (Fall, 1990): 66.
Cheever, Susan. “The
Healer Bill W.” Time. (
Kurtz, Ernest. A.A.:
The Story.
Pace, Eric.
“Lois Burnham Wilson, a Founder of Al-Anon Groups, is Dead at 97.” New
York Times (October 6, 1988): B26.
“Pass It On,” The Story of Bill Wilson and How the A.A. Message Reached
the World.
Steven, John W.
“Bill W. of Alcoholics Anonymous Dies.”
New York Times.
Thomsen, Robert.
Bill W.
Wilson, Lois. Lois Remembers: Memoirs of the Co-Founder of
Al-Anon and Wife of the Co-Founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Wilson,
www.al-anon.org,
www.alcoholics-anonymous.org, www.steppingstones.org
[1] Alcoholics
Anonymous (
[2] New York Times Obituary.
[3] Dr. Benjamin Rush, 1790
[4] Lois Wilson, Lois Remembers (New York: Al-Anon Family Groups Headquarters, 1987) p. 73.
[5] Lois Wilson, p. 145.
[6] Jack Alexander, “Alcoholics Anonymous,” Saturday Evening Post, p. 9
[7] Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 571.
[8] www.alcoholics-anonymous.org,
printed out
[9] www.alcoholics-anonymous.org,
printed out
[10] Susan Cheever, “The
Healer Bill W,” Time,
[11] www.al-anon.org,
printed out
[12] Thomsen, p. 284.
[13] Lois Wilson, p. 126.
[14] Lois Wilson, p. 134.