Girl Scout Cookies
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
On November 11, 1932, Girl Scouts baked & sold cookies for the first time in the windows of the Philadelphia Gas & Electric Co. here. This endeavor soon became a Philadelphia tradition. In 1936 the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. adopted the annual cookie sale as a national program.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
On Armistice Day 1932, Philadelphia Girl Scouts baked cookies and sold them in the display windows of the local gas and electric company, turning a simple fundraiser into a local sensation. The idea spread through the city as a yearly tradition, and by 1936 the national Girl Scouts had adopted the cookie sale as an official program. What began as girls behind a store window grew into one of the most recognizable youth enterprises in the country.
Why it matters
The Girl Scout cookie sale gave generations of American girls an early, hands-on lesson in enterprise and organization, and it started here in Philadelphia.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
By the early 1930s the Girl Scouts had been part of American life for two decades, part of a broader movement to give young people structure, skills, and a sense of purpose outside the classroom. For girls in particular, scouting offered something still uncommon: a place to learn organization, teamwork, and a bit of enterprise.
The timing matters. In 1932 the country was deep in the Great Depression, and money was scarce for nearly everyone, including the local organizations that depended on it. Troops and councils had to be resourceful, finding ways to fund their activities when donations were thin and budgets tight.
Philadelphia in this period was a big industrial city with a strong civic fabric — businesses, utilities, and community groups woven together downtown. That setting, where a local company might lend its storefront to a good cause, set the stage for a small idea with an outsized future.
People & events
On November 11, 1932 — Armistice Day, when the nation paused to remember the end of the Great War — Philadelphia Girl Scouts did something simple and clever. They baked cookies and sold them in the display windows of the local gas and electric company, turning a utility's storefront into a place of business for a day.
It worked. What might have been a one-time fundraiser struck a chord, and the sale grew into a Philadelphia tradition, repeated and anticipated year after year. Girls behind a store window, baking and selling, became a familiar and welcome sight.
The idea did not stay local for long. In 1936 the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. adopted the annual cookie sale as a national program, taking what Philadelphia had started and making it part of scouting from coast to coast.
Its place in the American story
The Girl Scout cookie sale became one of the most recognizable youth enterprises in America, and it is easy to forget it had a beginning — a specific day, a specific city, a specific pair of storefront windows. This marker points to that origin.
What makes it more than a charming anecdote is what the sale taught. Generations of American girls learned, hands-on, how to plan, produce, sell, handle money, and work together toward a goal. For many, it was a first real lesson in enterprise and organization, delivered not through a lecture but through a card table and a box of cookies.
That a nationwide institution grew from a Depression-era fundraiser in Philadelphia is a very American kind of story: a practical solution to a lean-times problem that turned out to have staying power far beyond anything its inventors imagined.
If you visit
Come to this spot in Philadelphia and you're standing where a household tradition began. There's nothing flashy to see — this is a marker that asks you to picture the scene rather than tour it: display windows, trays of freshly baked cookies, and Girl Scouts making their first sales on a chilly November day.
It's a good stop for families, and a fun one to explain to kids who have almost certainly bought or sold cookies themselves. Ask them to imagine that the whole nationwide tradition started right here, before it spread across the country.
Work it into a walk through downtown Philadelphia's dense history and let it be the light, human note among the weightier landmarks — proof that big American traditions sometimes start with something as small and as sweet as a batch of cookies in a store window.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Museums & culture
- African American Museum in Philadelphia0.6 mi away · 701 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Bridgette Mayer0.7 mi away · 709 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Independence Visitor Center0.8 mi away · 599 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA
- National Constitution Center0.8 mi away · 525 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Liberty Bell Center0.8 mi away · 526 Market Street, Philadelphia
- Congress Hall0.8 mi away · Philadelphia, PA
Attractions
- Reading Terminal0.3 mi away
- One Liberty Observation Deck0.3 mi away
- The Universal Sphere0.3 mi away
- Chinatown Friendship Gate0.4 mi away · 10th and Arch Street
- Philly Gun Range0.7 mi away · North Percy Street
- President's House0.8 mi away
Food & drink
- Burger King0.6 mi away
- Philly Pretzel Factory0.6 mi away
- Munchie’s Cafe0.6 mi away · 728 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
- El Azteca0.7 mi away
- Park’s Salad Bar0.7 mi away
- Dunkin'0.7 mi away · 634 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA
Places to stay
- The Notary Hotel0.1 mi away · 21 North Juniper Street, Philadelphia
- Residence Inn Philadelphia Center City0.1 mi away · 1 East Penn Square, Philadelphia, PA
- Home2 Suites by Hilton Philadelphia - Convention Center, PA0.2 mi away · 1200 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Philadelphia Marriott Downtown0.2 mi away · 1201 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Days Inn Philadelphia Convention Center - Philadelphia0.2 mi away · 1227 Race Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Four Points by Sheraton Philadelphia City Center0.3 mi away · 1201 Race Street, Philadelphia
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Themes & tags
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