Jim Bowsher's Temple of Tolerance

 The first weekend in August, I spend a fiberlicious couple of days with a friend.  We drove up to the Akron area and picked up a loom, then spent the night at the Youth Hostel at Malabar Farms.  The next day we did two quilty things (more on those later) and returned to Piqua/Troy going through Wapakoneta, Ohio.

Deb Neff, who is an Ohio native and intrepid explorer as well as my ride for the trip asked me if I had ever seen Jim Bowsher's Temple of Tolerance.  I hadn't.  In fact, prior to this weekend, I had never heard of it.

So, this entailed a stop which was quite worthwhile and amazing.  Jim Bowsher had collected rocks, carved and natural and bits of this and that to build a "Temple of Tolerance."  He has taken architectural elements, discarded gravestones, blocks which appear to have been practice pieces for stone carvers and assembled them on his house lot in Wapakoneta. 

 Bowsher makes this remarkable place open to the public free of charge.  You go and you wanter in absolute amazement.  It is tucked behind his house and next to his garage, both of which appear about ready to be eaten by Virginia Creeper and Boston Ivy.

The grounds are not without peril...I saw tons of healthy poison ivy, but it is really really amazing.  My friend told me that Bowsher works with at risk teens and often has them work with him on the Temple.  

 I didn't dare climp up the steps to the top of the temple mound...I didn't think my pelvis and feet would allow, but I looked up in awe.



There are many little altars, this one seems to have been created for or appropriated by Vietnam Vets.

This has sort of a Mayan figure on top...Throughout the grounds you see bits and pieces of ironwork, as well as the magnificent stones.


It's well worth a stop and very easy to find.  It's located at 203 South Wood Street.


I'd love to meet Jim some day...He seems like a really neat person.  I'll end with a clip with him from Youtube.