You know them best for their delicious cookies, but it turns out that there was an era of Girl Scouts that weren’t so innocent. Granted these girls grew up during World War II.
According to the Georgetown Dish, the Tudor Place Historic House and Gardens, on 31st Street in the District, had to be closed Monday afternoon after a World War II-era Girl Scout medical box was deemed hazardous.
The Georgetown Dish posted this note from Tudor Place’s executive director Leslie Buhler sent to trustees shortly after the scene was cleared:
“During the textile inventory project, an early 20th c. girl scout medical box was found. It contained picric acid gauze pads which are highly explosive. After several calls to D.C. government office, we finally were told to call the police. That resulted in a response by more police, fire and the bomb/hazardous waste specialist.
All staff and visitors were evacuated from the property and careful instructions were given to the HazMat team. After 3 hours, they went into the house and removed the pads from the box. They took them out to the driveway area in a protected position and exploded them. All is safe with no injuries or damage.”
Let’s just hope the cookies don’t cause a HazMat situation anytime soon.
