The Bothwell Lodge State Historic Site is located in Missouri, United States north of Sedalia. The park was established in 1974 for a lodge named after John Homer Bothwell. The park currently offers tours, hiking, and mountain biking trails.
John Bothwell purchased the property that the lodge presently resides in 1890, which he named Stonyridge Farm. From 1897 to 1928, Bothwell built the lodge in four phases on top of a rock bluff overlooking a valley. The lodge was intended to be a summer home for Bothwell and is an eclectic combination of various styles with Craftsman influences. One of the eccentricities of the home was the failed attempt by Bothwell to use a cave discovered during construction as the source of natural air conditioning. The limestone used in the home's construction was quarried on site.
A widower for most of his life, Bothwell often invited family and friends to stay at the lodge. It was to this group of individuals that he left the lodge to upon his death. The group was named the Bothwell Lodge Club, and the lodge was placed in their control so long as more than five members remained alive. Upon the death of the sixth member (reducing the membership to five), the lodge would then be offered to the state. In 1969, the property was officially offered to the state, which accepted the home five years later.
In addition to the lodge, the Bothwell Lodge State Historic Site possesses a garage/home, a separate home, hiking trails, and a playground.
Famous quotes containing the words lodge, state, historic and/or site:
“Vices may be said to await us along the course of our lives like hosts with whom we lodge successively on a journey; and I doubt that experience would cause us to avoid them, if we could travel the same road twice.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“Politics is about putting yourself in a state of grace.”
—Paddy Ashdown (b. 1941)
“The first farmer was the first man, and all historic nobility rests on possession and use of land.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The site of the true bottomless financial pit is the toy store. It’s amazing how much a few pieces of plastic and paper will sell for if the purchasers are parents or grandparent, especially when the manufacturers claim their product improves a child’s intellectual or physical development.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)