March 12 is National Girl Scout Day, commemorating the official founding the Girl Scouts of the USA in 1912. In honor of that anniversary — and the cookies you’re no doubt buying this time of year — we’re taking a look back at the history of girl scouting in Louisville.
The timeline
- 1911: Louisville’s first Girl Scout troop was started, predating the founding of the organization by a year. They met in the basement of the Highlands Library on Cherokee Road.
- 1917: The first official Girl Scout troops were founded in Kentucky in Scottsville and Owensboro, with groups in Paducah, Louisville, and New Albany to follow by 1919.
- 1923: The first Louisville Council of Girl Scouts was chartered, with offices in the Dolfinger Building on South 4th Street.
- 1928: Louisville-area Girl Scouts leased a plot of land in Bullit County to become the first Girl Scout Camp in Kentucky — they bought it a year later, and it’s still active today as Camp Shantituck.
- 1938: Louisville Girl Scouts met with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
- 1940: The council formed an interracial committee for Black Girl Scouting, along with the first Black troop in Louisville.
- 1945: Murray Walls becomes the first Black member of the Louisville Council’s Board of Directors.
- 1955: The Girl Scouts built a new pool at Camp Shantituck for both Black and white Scouts, and all camp sessions were fully integrated. Walls receives national recognition from the Girl Scouts for her work on desegregation.
- 1962: The Louisville Council became the Kentuckiana Girl Scout Council + expanded its jurisdiction.
Bonus: In 1961, 500 Girl Scouts boarded the steamboat Avalon in Memphis for a cruise to New Orleans. A year later, that boat would find a permanent home in Derby City and be redubbed The Belle of Louisville.
