The Little House on the Corner

Duane's take

The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just along for the ride. Now, there are big stories in Texas, stories of cattle drives and oil booms and battles that shaped a state. And then there's the little house on the corner in McCamey, up in Upton County.

Don't let the size fool you. This one's got a whole town in its walls. Literally.

The building went up between 1940 and 1941, and right from the start it was something special. The independent school district furnished the site, and the purpose was clear: give McCamey's Girl Scout troops a home of their own. But here's where McCamey, Texas showed its character.

They didn't just hand over a lot and call it done. The entire town, and the marker says the entire town, worked in a united effort to get the materials together and raise that house. Now, what came out of that effort was the first stone veneer structure ever built in McCamey.

The stones in those walls came from two places. The Girl Scouts brought their prized rock collections. Their own rocks, the ones they'd gathered and kept, went right into the walls of the place.

And then oil firm trucks hauled stone down from Bobcat Hill, along with others who pitched in what they could. The balcony woodwork is cedar, cut from the nearby canyons. So you're looking at a building that is, in a very real sense, assembled from the land around it and the people who loved it.

Once it was standing, it didn't sit idle. Cook-outs, overnight camps for the scouts, all of that happened here. And from 1941 all the way through 1959, it served as a social center for the whole town of McCamey.

The story didn't end there either. In 1964, an extension was added. That little house on the corner kept growing, same as the community that built it.

One stone at a time, one willing hand at a time, McCamey made something that lasted.

What the marker says

Built 1940-1941, on site furnished by independent school district, to house McCamey Girl Scout troops. First stone veneer structure in McCamey. Girl Scouts' prized rock collections, plus stone hauled from Bobcat Hill by oil firm trucks and others used in walls. Balcony woodwork is cedar from nearby canyons. The entire town worked in a united effort to obtain materials, erect house. Setting for many "cook-outs" and overnight camps for Girl Scouts. Also served as social center for McCamey 1941-1959. An extension was built in 1964. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1967