Vermont’s Quiet Memorial to ‘Bill W.’

The grand old hotel was in such bad shape that Ozzie, hired as a manager, feared it would collapse.

But the birthplace of Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, has bounced back. It now offers rest for pilgrims to Wilson’s grave nearby, calm for visitors who need peace and a spot for folks turned around by AA to gather.

Staffed by volunteers, the inn, known as Wilson House, is a living memorial to the man who is revered worldwide for his healing plan for alcoholics. “It’s a place for people to come and give thanks to God for their new lives,” says Ozzie, who in the AA tradition goes by his first name only.

Wilson was born in 1895. He lived in the hotel, his grandmother’s, for a few years before his family moved to the Griffith house across the street. Ozzie and his wife, Bonnie, are building a library of archival material about AA to be housed at the Griffith place.

Wilson House, a quiet inn with a large wraparound porch, was renovated to the style of the 1840s, when it was built. Its history is inescapable. AA and religious literature rest on shelves and coffee tables. Testimonials and photos of Wilson hang on the walls.

The hotel carries legends about the inn--such luminaries as Charles Lindbergh and actress Myrna Loy stayed there in the 1920s--and about Wilson. Staffers say he built a glider from scratch when he was a boy, and his sister Dorothy crashed it into a haystack (she was unhurt).

Guests leave their testimonials and their thanks to Wilson, known in AA as Bill, in a big guest book. “I expected a miracle and I received so much more,” one states.

The miracle that AA members talk about began with Wilson, a stockbroker, and Robert Smith, a physician. Although both were from Vermont, their fateful meeting and partnership began in Akron, Ohio, in the early 1930s.

It was Wilson who came up with the famous 12 steps that underpin the AA program and others, such as Al-Anon, Debtors Anonymous and Overeaters Anonymous.

Wilson House is a for-profit enterprise, while the Griffith house is owned by a nonprofit foundation. Honoring AA traditions, neither is affiliated with AA in any formal way. By avoiding affiliation with a larger network, you avoid “problems with money, property and prestige,” Ozzie’s wife, Bonnie, says.

For Ozzie and Bonnie, who manage both properties, keeping Wilson’s memorial intact means running them along the principles Wilson made famous.

So no souvenirs are for sale--no postcards, T-shirts, coffee mugs.

“What you take away, you take away in your heart,” Ozzie says.

There’s no promotion or advertising, either. The Vermont Tourism and Marketing Department has never heard of them. Until three years ago, the inn didn’t even list a phone number.

“People find it by word of mouth if they’re meant to find it,” Ozzie says.

There’s no such memorial to Smith, who was born in St. Johnsbury in 1879. There’s only a wooden sign outside his birthplace and boyhood home. The house is largely unused, though there is one room set aside for AA meetings, and a drug and alcohol treatment program rents space there. Its significance isn’t unnoticed, however.

Profits from Wilson House are used to pay bills. Large, oddly shaped rooms furnished with antiques go for $45 to $70 a night, double occupancy. The rest of the house, with a board of directors, gets by on donations and volunteer help.

AA and other 12-step groups rent space for regular meetings and conferences. Those grateful to Wilson stay for weeks, sometimes months, helping with cooking and cleaning.