Bob Ingersoll House

The hamlet of Sherwood, New York, (east of Seneca Lake) was home to Quakers who espoused causes such as abolition, woman’s rights (nineteenth-century practice was to use the singular, woman's; later practice was to use the plural, women's), and freethought.

The local hotel went by many names over the years. In 1880, owner William Howland—son of village patriarch Slocum Howland—made additions to the structure and dubbed the building the "Bob Ingersoll House" in tribute to Robert Green Ingersoll’s vivid championing of abolitionism, woman's suffrage, and freethought. In 1900, ownership passed to Edwin L. Brewster, who restored the hotel’s original name, the Sherwood House.

The hotel operated until 1924. The building was then converted into a small hospital. That project was aided financially by Isabel Howland, niece of William Howland and his sister Emily Howland. The hospital continued until 1954, then operated as a nursing home until its abandonment in 1960.

The Bob Ingersoll House is one of twenty-seven buildings in the Sherwood Equal Rights Historic District, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. Thanks to Judith Wellman for supplying background information and images.