Stepping Stones

A National Historic Landmark. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. 12 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1892.

From the record

“Stepping Stones is the historic home of Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson and his wife, co-founder of Al-Anon/Alateen Lois Wilson, in Bedford Hills, New York. The historic site features their house ; Bill W.'s writing studio, nicknamed "Wit's End"; approximately 15,000 objects left by the Wilsons; a water pump house; the original one-car garage; a two-car garage and Welcome Center with an orientation display highlighting some of the 100,000 items in the Stepping Stones Archives; a flower garden; a community vegetable garden; and more.”
Wikipedia article Stepping Stones (house), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 250 National Register listings published here for Westchester County · listed in 2004 · category: Building · a National Historic Landmark.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. 62 Oak Rd., Katonah, 10536
When was it listed? July 2004
Category. building
Town. Bedford town
National Register reference number. 04000705 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1892 to 1998

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 106 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Stepping Stones, surveyed 1998

Topographic sheet covering Stepping Stones, surveyed 1892

Fires near this property

249 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 249 fires within 5 miles of Stepping Stones between 2000 and 2020, burning about 186 acres in total. 36 started naturally. 15 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	119
Natural	36
Smoking	25
Debris and open burning	21
Power generation/transmission/distribution	17
Arson/incendiarism	15
Equipment and vehicle use	9
Recreation and ceremony	6
Misuse of fire by a minor	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 2014	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
9 September 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
8 September 2008	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
7 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	NA
5 September 2016	Debris and open burning	3.8 acres	Fire Department of New York	N/A
5 September 2008	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
5 September 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
5 September 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named

Every fire recorded in Westchester County

Mines and quarries near this property

5 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Stepping Stones: 4 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
Somers Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Baylis Rock Quarry	Stone	Past Producer
Baylis Rock Quarry	Stone	Past Producer
Kinkel Gneiss Rock Quarries	Stone	Producer
Kinkel Gneiss Rock Quarries	Stone	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Westchester County

Storms near this property

6 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Katonah, the town this property stands in, in 6 storm reports between 2000 and 2024: 5 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
July 2024	Lightning	Katonah	$20,000	House struck by lightning in Katonah NY.
July 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Katonah	$20,000	Numerous trees were reported down in Katonah, including two onto cars.
July 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Katonah	$3,000	Trees down on wires at the Taconic Correctional Facility.
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Katonah	$3,000	Trees down across multiple roads in Katonah.
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Katonah	$2,000	Photo confirms trees blocking two lane road, Highway 100 near Muscoot Farm Park.
June 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Katonah	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Westchester County

Maps showing this location

12 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the middle of the area the National Park Service maps for this listing, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1892 USGS Stamford quadrangle1:62500
1893 USGS Stamford quadrangle1:62500
1899 USGS Stamford quadrangle1:62500 - 13 printings
1947 USGS Hartford quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1948 USGS Hartford quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1955 USGS Mount Kisco quadrangle1:24000 - 5 printings
1961 USGS Hartford quadrangle1:250000
1962 USGS Hartford quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1965 USGS Hartford quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1982 USGS Mount Kisco quadrangle1:24000
1986 USGS Bridgeport quadrangle1:100000 - 3 printings
1998 USGS Mount Kisco quadrangle1:24000

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
St. Luke's Episcopal Church	1.1 miles	2001
Katonah Village Historic District	1.1 miles	1983
Richard H. Mandel House	1.3 miles	1996
The Woodpile	1.9 miles	1992
Stonecrest	2.0 miles	2004
John Jay Homestead	2.2 miles	1972

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 04000705 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Westchester County	All 250 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.