About the Historic Chehalis Scout Lodge

The Chehalis Scout Lodge is one of Chehalis’ enduring landmarks and a tangible connection to nearly a century of Scouting, community service and civic life.

The lodge was constructed during the Great Depression as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project, part of the federal New Deal effort that put Americans to work building lasting public improvements. The project was announced in 1937 as part of a larger $47,000 WPA effort to improve several Chehalis parks. Construction began that year, and the lodge opened for use in April 1938, with its formal dedication held on October 4, 1938.

Built in what was then known as Dobson Park, the lodge was designed in the rustic architectural style commonly used for parks and recreational buildings during the New Deal era. Its cedar-shingle exterior, large brick fireplace and chimney, multi-pane windows and wooded hillside setting were intended to blend the building with its natural surroundings. The National Register nomination describes it as perhaps the finest surviving example of this architectural style in Chehalis.

Although built as a Scout lodge, the building has served the wider Chehalis community during important moments in local history. During World War II, a caretaker family lived in its upstairs quarters. After the 1949 Olympia earthquake, damage to Chehalis High School resulted in students using the lodge as temporary classroom space to finish the 1950 school year. The building was also used for church services for a number of years and, during the 1996 Chehalis-area flooding, served as a temporary Red Cross shelter for nearly 40 people.

Generations of local Scouts have called the lodge home. Troop 373, chartered in 1968 with the support of the local Rotary club, has a particularly long association with the building. By the troop's 50th anniversary in 2018, 125 Troop 373 Scouts had earned the rank of Eagle Scout. Scouts themselves have also helped preserve the lodge, including Eagle Scout service projects and volunteer restoration work.

The building's historical importance extends beyond Scouting. The Chehalis Scout Lodge was placed on the Washington State Heritage Register in 2004 and added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 15, 2004. It is also a contributing resource within Chehalis' Hillside Historic District.

Today, the lodge remains in use and continues to serve as a home for Scouting in Chehalis. Sitting beneath the trees of historic Dobson Park at the trailhead of the Dobson-McFadden Trail, it represents an unusual combination of New Deal history, local architecture, outdoor recreation and generations of youth service. More than eight decades after it opened, the Chehalis Scout Lodge remains a place where the city's past and the continuing tradition of Scouting meet.