Boy Scout Monument

Boy Scout Memorial

Boy Scout Memorial
Location: 15th Street, NW between E Street and Constitution Avenue
Erected: 1964
Sculptor: Donald DeLue
Architect: Willam Henry Deacy

The memorial to the Boy Scouts of America is the only memorial in Washington to commemorate a living cause. It was constructed at no expense to the government. The funds were raised from each Scout unit and each donor signed a scroll that was later placed in the pedestal of the statue.

During the 50th Anniversary Year of Scouting (1959), a proposal was made to establish the memorial on the site of where the first Boy Scount Jamboree in Washington, D.C. was held. Lyndon B. Johnson, who was the Senate majority leader at the time, introduced the measure to the Senate. The memorial was eventually unveiled in a ceremony on November 7, 1964. The statue was accepted for the country by Associate Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark, who noted it was his fiftieth anniversary as an Eagle Scout.

The bronze statue consists of three figures: a Boy Scout, a woman and a man. Each figure symbolizes the idea of the great and noble forces that are an inspiring background of each Scout as he goes about the business of becoming a man and a citizen.

The male figure symbolizes physical, mental and moral fitness, love of country, good citizenship, loyalty, honor, courage and clean living. He carries a helmet, a symbol of masculine attire and a live oak branch, a symbol of peace and of strength.

The female figure symbolizes enlightenment with the light of faith, love of God, high ideals, liberty, justice, freedom, democracy and love of fellow man; symbolizing the spiritual qualities of good citizenship. She holds high the eternal flame of God's Holy Spirit.

The figure of the Boy Scout represents the hopes of all past, present and future scouts around the world and the hopes of every home, church and school that all that is great and noble in the Nation's past and present will continue to live in them and through them in many generations to come.

A small pool in front of the memorial represents the honor of those children who joined the Boy Scouts of America.

Boy Scout Oath or Promise
On my honor, I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.