Gables ScoutingCoral Gables

1922

Older than the city
itself.

In 1922 George Merrick started drawing Coral Gables across his father's citrus grove. Troop 7 was founded in 1922, three years before Coral Gables was officially incorporated, in a clearing he left in the middle of the plan. It has not moved since.

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1922 – 1925

A city drawn on paper, all at once.

Merrick inherited three thousand acres of citrus groves and pine from his father and set out to build a whole city on it — plazas, entrances, villages, a university. He spent more than twenty million dollars in three years. Coral Gables was not incorporated until 29 April 1925, so for its first three years the troop was older than the city it met in.

3,000acres of grove and pine, drawn as a city

Two Troop 7 scouts standing behind a vehicle in 1923 — **Kenneth Allyn and Guy Malcomb, 1923.** The city around them was still a building site. Courtesy Troop 7 Coral Gables

They cut the city out of the ground it stands on.

Coral Gables is built from the limestone under it — coral rock, cut and laid largely by Bahamian stonemasons. The quarry they emptied became the Venetian Pool in 1924. The chimney in the scout clearing is the same rock.

18991906

The house the city is named for.

In 1899 the Reverend Solomon Merrick bought 160 acres south of Miami, and the family moved into a log cabin that was already standing on the land. They planted grapefruit and vegetables, and the groves grew.

Althea Merrick designed the house that replaced it: native limestone, quarried from the pit that later became the Venetian Pool, under a roof of gables. It was finished in 1906, and the family called it Coral Gables. Their son George gave his city the same name.

The house still stands at 907 Coral Way, restored by the city and open for visits. Coral rock, cut by hand, by people who meant to stay.

1899The first Merrick home is a log cabin.
1906The coral rock house is finished.
1976It is given to the people of Coral Gables.

1926 newspaper drawing headlined Boy Scouts to have log cabin headquarters in woods — **The announcement, 1926.** Drawn before a single pole was cut. Courtesy Troop 7 Coral Gables

September 1926

The storm that broke the city built the scouts a cabin.

The hurricane of 17–18 September 1926 ended the Florida land boom. Merrick fell into debt; by 1928 he was off the commission of the city he invented. Out of the same wreckage — downed telephone poles, gathered by his own construction company — the scouts got a cabin, drawn by Phineas Paist, who had turned the quarry into the Venetian Pool.

2 acresdeeded to the scouts, permanently

Scoutmaster Albert H. Bartle photographed with three Eagle Scouts in campaign hats — **Albert H. Bartle and three of his Eagle Scouts.** George Montgomery, center. Courtesy Troop 7 Coral Gables

1922 – 1945

It lasted because people refused to let it stop.

Albert H. Bartle, the first scoutmaster, led the troop for three years and then stayed on its committee — sixteen years in all, until 1938. Rex Hawkins kept it going through the Second World War, when a great many things like this quietly ended. Merrick died in 1942, at fifty-five, working as the county's postmaster. The city outlasted his money. So did the troop.

The Troop 7 log cabin standing among pines, photographed in 1970 — **The cabin, east side, 1970.** Photographed months before it burned. Courtesy Troop 7 Coral Gables

March 30, 1971

The cabin burned.

It went in the evening and was condemned. Everything Merrick's crews had put up was gone — except the chimney. It is still standing in the clearing today, which is a difficult thing to explain to a seven-year-old and a very easy thing to show them.

Mildred Hawkins unveiling the J. Rex Hawkins dedication plaque in 1976, with her son and grandson — **July 25, 1976.** Mildred Hawkins with the plaque, her son W. Rex Hawkins — Eagle, 1948 — and her grandson. Courtesy Troop 7 Coral Gables

1971 → 1976 → 2019

They built it back themselves.

That September the city and the troop signed a ninety-nine-year renewable lease on the ground. Then scouts, friends and volunteers put up the new Scout House by hand. It was dedicated on 25 July 1976 in memory of J. Rex Hawkins. In 2019 the program opened to girls and Troop 719 was formed.

Do A Good Turn Daily & Always Be Prepared — the message board on the site

The surviving coral rock chimney in the clearing, hung with a banner reading 100 years of scouting, beside the Troop 7 Log Cabin historical marker — **The chimney, a hundred years on.** The Florida Heritage marker stands beside it. Courtesy Troop 7 Coral Gables

Wednesdays, 7:30

1107 South Greenway Drive.

Cub Scout Pack 7, Troop 7, Troop 719 and Venturing Crew 7 all meet at the Scout House. George Merrick Troop 7 of Coral Gables, Inc. (gmt7.org) owns and keeps up the Scout House and charters all four units, with the City of Coral Gables.

A hundred years of other people's Wednesdays

The troop has kept its own scrapbook since the 1920s. A few pages of it.

Portrait of Scoutmaster Albert H. Bartle — 1922 to 1938Albert H. Bartle, the first scoutmaster. Sixteen years, to 1938.

Two Eagle Scouts of the 1920s posing in uniform — The 1920sTwo Eagle Scouts. The troop has logged every one since 1924.

Volunteers erecting the walls of the new Scout House in 1975 — 1975Walls going up. Scouts, parents and friends built it.

Six Eagle Scouts at a 1976 court of honor — 1976The Eagle court of honor, in the building they had just finished.

Eagle Scouts from several decades gathered at the troop centennial — 2022Eagles from the seventies and eighties, back for the centennial.

The Troop 7 Scout House today with unit flags outside — TodayThe Scout House. Four units meet here every week.

All photographs courtesy of Troop 7 of Coral Gables, from the troop's own archive.

Not many cities will let a seven-year-old join their history.

The Biltmore is a hotel, the Venetian Pool is a swimming pool, and the clearing on Greenway Drive is a scout troop that has met there since before the city had a name on a map. Your kid can just turn up and be part of it. Tell us one thing — what grade they're in.

About two minutes, and nothing is final until you've met a leader.

Already in Pack 7, Troop 7 or Troop 719? Sign in instead →

Four things we'd rather you heard from us first

A grown-up comes tooCub Scouting is a family program, not a drop-off. A parent or guardian attends every meeting and campout with their Cub, kindergarten through 5th grade. Once a scout moves up to a troop, drop-off is fine.

Two troops, one Scout HouseTroop 7 for boys and Troop 719 for girls share the Scout House, camp the same weekends, and are run by the same families.

There is a cost, and it isn't a barrierNational registration plus unit dues. A leader will walk you through the real numbers before you pay anything, and no family is turned away over money — just say so.

Bring nothing the first nightNo uniform, no gear, no forms. Regular clothes and closed-toe shoes. Everything else gets sorted after you decide you're staying.

History and photographs on this page come from the troop's own archive, the Florida Heritage Site marker at the Scout House, and local reporting on the centennial. City history is from public reference sources on Coral Gables, George Merrick and the Venetian Pool.
Troop 7 history · Coral Gables · George E. Merrick · Venetian Pool · Troop 7 Log Cabin marker · Florida Division of Historical Resources · Troop 7 celebrates 100 years

The clearing is still open

Be part of the history.

Kindergarten through 12th grade, parents welcome at every step, Wednesday nights at the Scout House on the Granada Golf Course. Tell us one thing — what grade your kid is in — and a leader from the right unit will get in touch.

Pack 7 · K–5Troop 7 · boys, 6th–12th gradeTroop 719 · girls, 6th–12th grade

Older than the cityitself.