Campaign to save historic Boy Scout building underway

An Eagle Scout is raising funds to save a historic building once used for Boy Scout meetings.

UGA forestry student Robbie Thomas has started a GoFundMe account to raise $20,000 needed to relocate the Boy Scout hut from Henry Burns Park. As of now, plans are to tear down the building to make way for upgrades that include a new playground and parking.

Macon-Bibb County is willing to work with Thomas to find a new site for the hut, Macon-Bibb spokesman Chris Floore said.

The hut was a troop meeting place until 2005. This year, the Macon-Bibb County Commission approved a master plan for the park that included input from residents from the Ingleside neighborhood.

One potential location to move the hut is Amerson River Park.

“We’re certainly interested in working with them on (a new location),” Floore said. “We’ve got a great piece of Boy Scouts history right there, but we don’t have a use for that in the (Henry Burns) location.”

Thomas said he became aware of the problems with the hut, built in 1933, while he was home for the Christmas holiday last year. Money to construct the hut was raised by the members of Troop 5 — the oldest scout troop in Middle Georgia — through selling doughnuts.

Thomas said he became a Boy Scout while in the first grade.

“I had never stepped foot in that building before that day but as soon as I opened the door I knew that I had to save it,” said a message he posted on gofundme.com. “The vines were growing through the windows, there was dirt everywhere and nature was starting to take hold. For the next three weeks I spent every available moment I had repairing and cleaning the Scout hut and surrounding property.”

The county is now waiting to get back engineering designs.

“Once it’s out for bid and we have contractor, that’s when we’ll have a timeline,” Floore said.

Thomas said the effort has a larger meaning than just preserving a building.

“By helping our campaign you will not just be saving an old building. You will saving a piece of history that represents everything that has always been great about this country,” Thomas said.

This story was originally published August 29, 2016 at 4:15 PM with the headline "Campaign to save historic Boy Scout building underway."