Josey Boy Scout Lodge and Keeper’s Cabin
Huntsville, Walker County
Listed July 27, 2018
For more than 80 years, the Josey Boy Scout Lodge and Keeper’s Cabin have been the primary meeting facility for Huntsville-area boy scouts. The lodge and cabin, designed by Mike Mebane, a young architect at the beginning of his long and successful career, were funded with a cash gift by Robert A. Josey, a Huntsville native who made a career in the oil and gas industry, and were built in 1934 with federal assistance from the Civil Works Administration. Set beneath a graceful canopy of pine trees, the lodge is a true log-constructed building with a large, clear-span assembly room that features a magisterial petrified wood fireplace and a full-height ceiling with exposed rafters supported by heavy timber joists. The Josey Boy Scout Lodge and Keeper’s Cabin are listed in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A in the area of Social History for its association with boy scouting activities through the mid-20th century, and under Criterion C in the area of Architecture as an excellent example of rustic park buildings designed in the style promoted by the National Park Service.
