Progressive & Modern Era

Girl Scout Little House

Borger, Hutchinson County, Texas

Marker Inscription

This community landmark has its origins in Borger's prewar oil boom. In early 1941, Hudson Davis opened a car dealership here, moving his family from Amarillo. Hudson and his wife Ruby immediately became involved in civic activities, with Hudson joining the Lions Club, Chamber of Commerce and other groups. Ruby and her daughter had been active in Girl Scouts in Amarillo, and so Ruby helped start a Girl Scout troop in Borger. She She and Margaret Elliot, principal of the Weatherly School, called an organizational meeting, and more than one hundred girls and their mothers attended. Ruby became president of the Borger Girl Scout Council. World War II building restrictions and supply shortages delayed construction of a community center intended as a permanent meeting place for the Girl Scouts. In July 1945 Hudson Davis became president of the Lions Club, and directed the organization to sponsor construction of a headquarters building for the local scout troop. Fritz Thompson donated land near the community hospital, and Borger school superintendent Curtis Cryer obtained plans from Amarillo architect Macon O. Carder for the new building. Construction of the Girl Scout Little House became a community-wide effort, with all material, money and labor being donated. The U-shaped building features an irregular course rock finish, low-pitch roof with cross gables and exposed rafter tails. The stone veneer of the building is dolostone from the Alibates formation. Since its completion, the building has been the site of many community activities as well as a meeting place for the Girl Scouts and Lions Club. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-2008

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Borger boomed on Panhandle oil in the 1920s and '30s, and civic-minded newcomers like Hudson and Ruby Davis helped knit the young town together. Ruby organized a Girl Scout troop that drew more than a hundred girls, and after wartime shortages delayed construction, the Lions Club rallied a community-wide effort to build this rock headquarters—faced in dolostone from the local Alibates formation—completed in the years after World War II.

Why it matters

The Little House captures how mid-century American towns built lasting community institutions through volunteer labor and civic clubs.

The story behind this marker

AI context

The era

The story of the Little House begins with oil. Borger sprang up in the Texas Panhandle during the boom years, when a strike could turn empty prairie into a crowded town almost overnight. By the eve of World War II, Borger had cooled from its wildest days into something steadier — a young community still figuring out what kind of town it wanted to be.

Into that setting, in early 1941, came Hudson Davis, who opened a car dealership and moved his family up from Amarillo. It was a moment of arrival for a lot of American towns like Borger: the frontier chaos was giving way to civic life — clubs, schools, churches, and the volunteer energy that knits strangers into neighbors.

Then the war came, and with it the shortages that shaped everything that followed here. Building materials were rationed and directed toward the war effort, and ordinary construction projects were delayed or shelved. The tale of this modest rock building is, at heart, a story of a community waiting out those lean years and then pouring itself into a shared project the moment it could.

People & events

Hudson and Ruby Davis threw themselves into their new hometown right away. Hudson joined the Lions Club, the Chamber of Commerce, and other groups; Ruby, who had been active in Girl Scouting back in Amarillo along with her daughter, set out to bring scouting to Borger.

She did not do it quietly. Together with Margaret Elliot, principal of the Weatherly School, Ruby called an organizational meeting — and more than a hundred girls and their mothers turned out. It was the kind of response that tells you a town was hungry for exactly this. Ruby became president of the Borger Girl Scout Council, and the troop needed a permanent home of its own.

The war stalled that dream, but it did not kill it. In July 1945, Hudson Davis became president of the Lions Club and steered the organization into sponsoring a headquarters for the scouts. From there it became a genuine community effort: Fritz Thompson donated land near the hospital, school superintendent Curtis Cryer secured plans from Amarillo architect Macon O. Carder, and the material, money, and labor were all donated. Neighbors built it, together, out of what they could give.

Its place in the American story

The Little House is a small building that captures something large about mid-century America. All across the country in these years, towns were building their civic infrastructure not through big government contracts but through service clubs, PTA meetings, and volunteers with their sleeves rolled up. The Lions Club sponsoring a Girl Scout headquarters is that whole era in miniature.

It also speaks to how women organized American community life. Ruby Davis and Margaret Elliot did not wait for an institution to arrive; they called a meeting and built one, drawing a hundred girls into an organization meant to shape confident, capable young women. Girl Scouting was part of a national movement, and here you can see exactly how it took root in one Panhandle town.

There is even a piece of the land itself built into the walls. The stone veneer is dolostone from the local Alibates formation — the same distinctive Panhandle rock famous elsewhere for the flint that native peoples quarried for thousands of years. A building raised by donated labor, faced in local stone, for a homegrown troop: it is community, quite literally, made of its own place.

If you visit

Look first at the building itself, because it wears its story on the outside. The U-shaped plan, the low-pitched roof with cross gables, the exposed rafter tails, and above all the irregular, rough-coursed rock finish give it the handmade, settled feel of something built by many hands rather than a contractor's crew. Run your eye over that dolostone veneer and remember it came from the ground nearby.

Think about who has passed through those doors since it was finished. This was never a single-use hall — the marker notes it has hosted community activities of every kind, along with the Girl Scouts and the Lions Club who built it. A place like this holds decades of troop meetings, badge ceremonies, potlucks, and civic gatherings in its walls.

On a Panhandle road trip, the Little House makes a warm, human counterpoint to the big-sky landscape and the oil-boom history all around Borger. It is a reminder that some of the most enduring things a town ever builds are the small, shared spaces where its people gather.

Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.

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Related people

· Hudson Davis
· Ruby Davis

Themes & tags

Women's History EducationLandmark

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