New Brunswick, New Jersey

[Mr. Boyce 13]

. . . I'm not clear on why the HQ moved from New Jersey to, of all places, Texas! Anyone have the whys and wherefores?

[scottteng 11]

Like most corporate relocations they were made an offer they could not refuse to move to Texas. Lots of contributed dollars. There are people who will eventually give you the names etc but that is the crux of it plus Texas is central to the country not in the NE corridor like NJ.

[Narraticong 15]

Although I now live in the Detroit area, I grew up less than a mile from BSA Headquarters, which was actually in North Brunswick, NJ.

 

It was pretty cool as a kid to be able to ride my bike over there and go through the Johnston Museum whenever I wanted and see BSA history. I had a neighbor in the Art Department and whenever they needed a Cub Den for a Scouting Magazine article, we would be the "models". As a Scout, I was in many Merit Badge pamphlets and also in the Fieldbook.

 

For a while, Green Bar Bill was a neighbor of one of my fellow patrol members. At that age we knew he was somebody important to Scouts, but we had no idea that cool old guy was one of the greats of BSA!

 

It was a sad day for this Scout when BSA picked up and moved to Texas. But I am thankful for the many wonderful experiences I had growing up near Headquarters.

[emb021 16]

My understand is the increased cost of living in the area was also having a negative effect. The area was being very built up. While Schiff Scout Reservation was fairly close by, it was a long drive time-wise due to increased traffic.

 

Irving was more centrally located. I know of several non-profits who are based in Kansas City for similiar reasons (Camp Fire USA is there). Cost of living was better.

 

Sadly, the move necessitated the shutting down of Schiff and all the affects of that. While PTC is now our center for training, I don't know if it really fully replaced what we had there. The lost of the museum was also an effect. While I only visited the new one in Murphy, KY once, I heard stories of those who were familiar with the Johnston one, that it paled in comparison. (I heard the Johnston family was nearly in tears over the difference). We also lost our International scout hostel as well.

 

 

[Kahuna 172]

While they had a nice campus there and the museum was great and they had the visitors lodge there where you could stay overnight and Schiff was nearby, it was very hard to get to and certainly not central to the country. Irving is much less scenic, but easy to get to from a major hub airport.

 

I think a lot of retired oldtimers still live in Basking Ridge and places like that around the old HQ.