A 77-year legacy
The Boys & Girls Club of Hot Springs provided programs for the youths of Hot Springs for over seven decades.
The Boys & Girls Club closed March 2, citing the loss of its charter from the Boys & Girls Club of America. The property was divided into two parcels, with the former BGCHS building conveyed to Champion Christian College, and the baseball fields to Visit Hot Springs.
Boys Clubs began to be developed nationwide in the early 20th century. These youth programs were based on the belief that the best way to instill character and discipline in young men was to provide them with sports programs.
There are now over 4,000 local Boys & Girls Clubs around the country serving over 4 million young people.
In 1939, the Hot Springs
Optimist Club helped organize a Boys Club in Hot Springs. The first Boys Club facility was located in the National Guard Armory building at 210 Woodbine St. This building was available because the two Arkansas National Guard Units from Garland County had been called up for service in early World War II, and the armory building was temporarily available. The armory building provided space for a gymnasium and administrative offices. A baseball field was located at Belding and Carson Street.
In 1948, an ambitious fundraising campaign was begun to construct a Boys Club facility on Carson Street. At the initial fundraising banquet, the Optimist Club even lined up baseball legend Rogers Hornsby as a speaker. The goal was to raise $65,000, (the equivalent of almost $700,000 today). Local architect I. Granger McDaniel generously contributed his services to design the new Boys Club building.
Completed in 1953, the large and impressive Boys Club building dramatically demonstrated the Hot Springs community’s willingness to support youth programs. The new modernistic building was over 6,000 square feet in size and was built with massive poured concrete walls. The original Carson Street building is now used by First Step School as a part of its educational program. The over 20-acre site included three baseball fields and an indoor basketball court. In the early 1960s, local casino owners generously paid for a municipal swimming pool and tennis courts that were constructed next to the Boys Club building.
In the 1950s and 1960s, nearly every Hot Springs grade school fielded a baseball team that competed at the Boys Club. Teams included the Jones School Wrens, Rix School Cardinals, St. John’s Orioles, and Oaklawn Owls. The American Legion sponsored an advanced baseball program for teenage baseball players.
The Boys Club was conveniently located within a mile or two of several grade schools including Jones, Lee, Rix and St. John’s. In the 1950s and 1960s, when kids could safely walk nearly almost everywhere, boys and girls could be seen walking a dozen blocks or more to participate in the Boys Club sports programs, or swim at the large pool, or play tennis.
Local resident Sandy Elliot grew up several blocks from the Boys Club. Now age 70, Sandy recalls that as a kid he spent almost every day at the Boys Club playing baseball in the summer, flag football in the fall, and basketball in the winter. Sandy went on to be a two sports letterman at Hot Springs High School, lettering in both football and basketball. As a teenager, Sandy even served as an umpire for baseball games. Sandy credits the programs at the Boys Club with helping him develop his sports ability and keeping him out of trouble as a young man.
By the 1990s, the original large Boys Club building no longer met the needs of the program and its Board of Directors decided to build a new and smaller facility on Belding Street. In recent years, the Boys & Girls Club had expanded its services and programs to include after-school programs. These important programs provided supervision for children whose parents do not get off work until later in the day.
Hopefully, in the years ahead the outstanding 77-year legacy of the Boys & Girls Club of Hot Springs will continue for the benefit of the youths of Hot Springs.