More than Samoas, Thin Mints, and Tagalongs! Properties about Girl Scouts in the National Register of Historic Places

Today’s post is by John LeGloahec, Archivist in the Electronic Records Division at the National Archives in College Park, MD.

Tomorrow, March 12, is Girl Scout Day, which commemorates the founding of the Girl Scouts of the USA, when Juliette Gordon Low officially registered the organization’s first 18 members in Savannah, Georgia.  There are a number of properties in the National Register that are linked to the Girl Scouts, including the Juliette Gordon Low Historic District (National Archives Identifier 93206748), where Low lived in Savannah, Georgia.  “The National Historic Landmark consists of two individual properties in Savannah, Georgia: the Wayne-Gordon House/Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace at 10 Oglethorpe Avenue and a structure at 330 Drayton Street commonly known as the First Girl Scout Headquarters which was originally a carriage house and servants’ quarters for the Andrew Low House at 329 Abercorn Street. Both properties are located in the Savannah National Historic Landmark District. The boundaries of the landmark itself are discontiguous as the Wayne-Gordon House is situated several blocks away from the First Girl Scout Headquarters.”

The Low house at 10 Oglethorpe Avenue “was the birthplace and childhood home of Juliette Gordon Low. She lived there until she married William Mackay Low in 1886. The house was built between 1818 and 1821 for James Moore Wayne, a prominent Savannah jurist and politician who served as Mayor of Savannah, United States Congressman, and United States Supreme Court Justice. Moore sold the house in 1831 to his niece and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. William Washington Gordon I, Mrs. Low’s grandparents, and the property remained in the Gordon family until 1953 when the Girl Scouts of the United States of America purchased and restored it. The house was opened to the public in 1956. Interpretation of the site emphasizes Juliette Gordon Low’s life, the history of the Gordon family, and the history of Girl Scouting. The property is officially known as the Juliette Gordon Low Girl Scout National Center and is visited annually by thousands of Girl Scouts who participate in a variety of educational programs.”

The First Girl Scout Headquarters at 330 Drayton Street “originally as a carriage house and servants’ quarters for the Andrew Low House, Mrs. Low’s adult residence in Savannah. It is situated behind the garden in the rear of the Andrew Low House and was likely built at the same time as the Low House in 1849. In 1912, Mrs. Low had it remodeled as a meeting place for local Girl Scout Troops. When Mrs. Low died in 1927, she bequeathed this building to the Savannah Area Girl Scout Council. It was in continuous use by this organization until 1986. It is currently leased to the Junior League of Savannah.”

In Paron, Arkansas is the Camp Ouachita Girl Scout Camp Historic District (National Archives Identifier 26140136), which is “significant by virtue of its associations with both the men that built it, the enrollees of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) from Camp Thornburg, located just to the north of Lake Sylvia, and with the Girl Scouts of America, the organization for young girls that formed in the early twentieth-century and quickly became popular across the United States. Its contributing resources are also significant by virtue of their being outstanding and largely intact examples of the Rustic architectural style that was common to CCC construction projects throughout the United States. Finally, the District is significant through its potential to yield further information about the social and recreational activities of the local Girl Scouts that camped there between 1937 and 1940.”

“The Camp Ouachita Girl Scout Camp Historic District is also significant as it has the potential to reveal further information regarding the Girl Scouts and their various recreational, social, educational and athletic activities during this period of rapid growth on both the local and national levels. It may also reveal information regarding the activities conducted by the Girl Scouts of Arkansas, which could be of interest relative to both the national policy of the Girl Scouts regarding such matters and to the local policy and practices of the statewide organization. Such landscape features as the stone walls with associated steps, the myriad trails and paths that wind through the site, the historic roads into the site on which all campers, administrators, counselors, etc. came to the camp, and the six foundations of the two cabins, the bathhouse, the crafts building, and the boathouse and swim crib are all visible site features that indicate clearly the historic occupation and use of the site.”

In Big Stone Gap, Virginia, is the Terrace Park Girl Scout Cabin (National Archives Identifier 41684206), “a one-story log building constructed for public use in 1938 by the National Youth Administration, a companion agency to the Works Progress Administration under the New Deal during the Great Depression era. The building’s large, round, pine logs are laid horizontally and saddle-notched at the comers. The foundation and two end chimneys are constructed of cobblestones and the gable roof is low-pitched and asymmetrical, with one side of the roof extended to cover a shed addition (also of log) on one long side of the building. An entry porch wraps around two sides of the building.”

“The Terrace Park Girl Scout Cabin was built by the National Youth Administration (NYA) in the 1930s, and provides an outstanding example of “New Deal” construction. The NYA was akin to the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a companion agency under the New Deal. Several New Deal agencies, working together, constituted the greatest public works building program in United States history . . . In 1938, The Great Depression was a fact of life in the United States and Southwest Virginia was not an exception. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” federal programs designed to help lessen the financial effects of depression. The WPA and associated programs, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the National Youth Association (NYA), established headquarters and became active in Big Stone Gap and in surrounding communities in the 1930’s . . . Significantly, the NYA included women, whereas the CCC was only for young men. It was through the NYA young men’s labor that the Terrace Park Cabin was built, and through the NYA young women’s domestic training that it was partially financed.”

“During the same period, the national Girl Scout organization, active in the Richmond District of Virginia, found the need to expand leadership training in the far western region of the state. One of the targeted areas for new troop development was the coal camps around Appalachia, Virginia, not far from Big Stone Gap. It was estimated from a survey that over one thousand girls in Wise County and neighboring Lee County were anxious to become part of the organization.’ Perhaps it was the influence of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s interest in the Girl Scout organization or the attention from dynamic local leadership, but Girl Scouting was active and growing in membership in Wise and Lee Counties.”

In Blowing Rock, North Carolina is the Former Randall Memorial Building (National Archives Identifier 47722786), which “represents the efforts of early residents to improve the economic conditions of the people of the western North Carolina mountains and because of its architecture. The weatherboarded, one and one-half story cottage with steep gable roof, 16 over one windows and hiproofed, one-story wing, was built in 1907 by the local Episcopal Church congregation to serve as a workshop and training center for mountain handicrafts, where local mountain people could weave, spin and finish articles which would then be sold to tourists or to markets out of the state . . . The Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina sold the Randall Memorial Building in 1936, but it remained in use for many years as an important local civic building, housing the Blowing Rock Community Club and area Girl Scouts.”

In Plymouth, Massachusetts, is the Pinewoods Camp (National Archives Identifier 63796564), “developed in 1919 as the First National Girl Scout Training Camp. Starting in 1925 and completed by 1935, the camp use shifted to the teaching of English, and later American, traditional dance – a use that continues to this day. Approximately 62 of 100 buildings (cabins, dance pavilions, dining and recreational halls, outhouses, and related facilities) were built between 1919 and 1940.”

“The first camp buildings were constructed between 1919 and 1921 in preparation for the First National Girl Scout Training School. These buildings are located at the north end of the property on a rise above Long Pond. The Camphouse was constructed as an assembly building . . . The original wood floor with its Girl Scout seal survives, but is currently covered by additional flooring. Early photographs show a T-shaped dock constructed around the time of the Camphouse construction, similar in size and form to the existing dock. Ampleforth, an open-sided dance pavilion and recreational building, was built in 1920 adjacent to the Camphouse.”

“Although Pinewoods Camp was not officially used as a full-time dance camp until 1935, dance played an important part in the Girl Scout Training Camp curriculum. As a result, four dance pavilions were constructed.”

“Pinewoods Camp, known until 1935 as Pine Tree Camp, was founded on land owned by Helen Storrow. Due to her great interest and involvement in the Girl Scout movement, Storrow began offering Girl Scout programs at her private camp in 1917. Starting in 1919, the camp was also used as a Girl Scout Leadership Training School, and was the only such camp in the country until 1924. The Training School concept was formed “to train young women in scout activities, and to fit them to lead troops of girls, thus raising the standard of such leadership” (First National Training School for Girl Scout Officers, Third & Fourth Encampment, 1919). The camp was used for both Girl Scout programs and as a Girl Scout Leadership Training School until 1935. For three years in the 1920s, the camp was also used by the Red Cross Life Saving Institute.”

On Upper Saranac Lake in upstate New York is the Eagle Island Camp (National Archives Identifier 75315758), which is “located on Eagle Island, an approximately thirty-one acre landmass situated in the lower portion of the lake, north of Deer Island and west of Gull Point, the latter a peninsula extending from the lake’s eastern shore. Access to Eagle Island Camp, which is currently owned and operated by the Girl Scout Council of Greater Essex and Hudson Counties, New Jersey, is gained via boat from the mainland.”

“Eagle Island Camp was purchased by Henry Graves following Morton’s death in 1920, and subsequently transferred by Graves to the Girl Scouts in 1938. The buildings that form the camp retain the majority of their character defining features and vital spatial interrelationships, notwithstanding over a half-century of use by the Girl Scouts and subsequent deterioration and modifications relating to this current function. Still clearly evident, however, is Coulter’s overarching design intent for the complex.”

“Evident in the design of Eagle Island Camp are the distinctive elements that formed Coulter’s unique interpretation of the Adirondack camp. The use of both chalet-inspired and octagonal units, walkways and verandahs linking separate buildings, and the extensive application of open rustic screening are all characteristic of Coulter’s work and essential to the success of his Eagle Island scheme. Although utilized for well over half a century by the Girl Scout Council of Greater Essex and Hudson Counties as a summer camp. Eagle Island Camp retains the majority of its character-defining features and exterior and interior historic fabric and finishes, and remains an outstanding representation of Coulter’s work in the rustic vein.”

Now I’m going to go have a Trefoil and a glass of milk!  Happy Girl Scout Day!