Scout Lodge's 60th Anniversary Celebration
- graybillrealtor
- Jan 30, 2014
- 4 min read
AZ Republic's original article posted at:
Troops, community celebrate historic Litchfield Park lodge
The small lodge tucked away off Old Litchfield Road doesn’t look like much.
The sand-colored building, the size of a living room, stands near the Church at Litchfield Park, across the street from Scout Park. In front, a grassy lawn sprouts around a fire pit and several rows of benches.
The hut is one of the oldest continuously used Boy Scout lodges in Arizona and in the U.S., city history experts say. The historic lodge has been a gathering place for three generations of Scouts since it was established by the city’s namesake and founder, Paul Litchfield.
Two troops that use the lodge are also hitting milestones.
Troop 90 celebrated its 85th anniversary on Friday, and Troop 99 will mark its 71st year in August.
Last week, 75 local Scouts and their families joined city officials and the community to mark the 60th anniversary of the dedication of the Litchfield Park Scout Lodge.
At the celebration, Cub Scouts in bright-blue shirts and lanky teen Scouts goofed off in front of a roaring fire pit while white-haired former Scoutmasters reunited with old friends.
The lodge is a special place because it’s where youths learn to cherish values such as trustworthiness, loyalty and helpfulness, Litchfield Park Mayor Thomas Schoaf said.
“The Scout lodge is important to any community they’re in,” Schoaf said. “It’s a center for training (youths) in good citizenship and the values of our country.”
Founder’s passion
The Litchfield Park lodge was founded in 1954 by Litchfield, said Meredeth Stucky, a volunteer at the Litchfield Park Historical Society who also helped organize the event.
Litchfield, who traveled the world as an executive for Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., first encountered Canadian Scouts while sailing to England for the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary in summer 1911.
The good attitude and helpfulness of those Scouts inspired Litchfield to promote Scouting wherever he went, Stucky said.
“Every place that he had a Goodyear Tire operation, he started a troop,” she said.
The first lodge Litchfield founded was located in Akron, Ohio, and the second was in Goodyear. The Litchfield Park lodge was the third.
The Akron lodge eventually became a food pantry, and the Goodyear location became the city’s police station. For six decades, the Litchfield Park lodge has been used exclusively for Scouting, Stucky said.
She marveled at the lodge’s longevity.
“In America, things get taken over or pushed aside or somebody buys it and tears it down,” she said.
Litchfield also founded two Scout troops in the southwest Valley, Troop 99 and Troop 90.
Troop 90 met in schools and a room at the Goodyear Farms corral until the lodge was completed, 25 years after the troop was originally chartered.
While Troop 99 in Goodyear had a lodge built in 1943, the city bought the property in the mid-1970s. Eventually it began meeting at the Litchfield Park Scout Lodge.
Preserving the lodge
Six decades of Scouting has taken a toll on the lodge. In the early 2000s, the building had a termite infestation and needed roof repairs.
Over the next few years, the non-profit Litchfield Park Scout Lodge Preservation group fixed the roof and got rid of the termites. It also added the fire pit and new air-conditioning. Renovation costs so far have totaled $700,000. The organization is currently raising funds to improve the lodge’s energy efficiency, said Tim Smith, the current president and co-founder of the group.
The lodge property has changed hands over the years, and recently the city moved to take ownership of the land.
When owner Kabuto International Phoenix Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009, the property that includes the lodge was split between different buyers, putting the future of the lodge into question, Stucky said.
Litchfield Park is in the process of buying the property from Dragon and Crane of Las Vegas.
Community impact
The ceremony on Thursday was not very different from the original dedication.
The celebration kicked off with a presentation of flags carried by Cub, Boy and Girl Scouts. Past Scoutmasters and Packmasters spoke about their time with the lodge.
Former Troop 90 Scoutmaster Scott Seely praised local Scouts’ service to the community.
Troop 90 has produced 104 Eagle Scouts, including 45 since 2000, Seely told attendees. If each Eagle Scout project takes an average of 100 hours, those 45 Scouts gave 4,500 hours of community service to Litchfield Park, he said.
Troop 90 cleans up Camelback Road between El Mirage and Litchfield roads regularly, Seely added. The troop also runs a flag program where, for eight holidays, the Scouts will place 200 flags around Litchfield Park at sunrise and retrieve them at sunset, always in full uniform.
While the exact number of youths who have have participated in Scouting programs at the Litchfield Park lodge is unknown, more than 200 youths use the lodge for meetings each week, Stucky said.
Former Scoutmaster Iris King, 86, has served the troops for almost 40 years and loves each one like they’re her own, she said.
“You look at kids these days,” said King, also the secretary of the lodge’s Firebird District, “and then you look at our Scouts, and you know (Scouting is) important.”
“That’s what really cool about this place. It’s really the same as it was when Mr. Litchfield built it back in 1954,” Smith said. “My hope is that this will be here forever.”
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