Teen Towns were community-driven recreational centers established across the United States during World War II to provide a safe, engaging environment for teens. These places, sometimes robust and sometimes just repurposed garages, barns, or fields, became a haven for young people amidst the turmoil of war. But it wasn’t until much after the war they hit their stride.
In early 1944, the strain of three years of WWII was evident on the home front. With millions of 18-year-olds enlisted or drafted into the Pacific or European theaters, a certain gloom hung over the 14-17-year-olds who remained home. Edward B. Kinder, Jr., the Missouri Recreational Representative of the Office of Community War Services (itself a division of the wartime Federal Security Agency) took notice, writing:
“The impact of war upon the teenage youth in town is strong and unsettling. The youth at work and the youth on the horizon of work who is still in school are restive under the impinging influences of war. Both groups are equally in need of wholesome outlets of play, sports, and fun.”
Kinder’s remarks were directed at virtually every community in Missouri and America. “Youngsters, particularly those still in school, need a place of their own where they can dance, sing, play games, and have a soda bar,” he said.
While much of the attention was directed toward adolescents and young teenagers, 17-19-year-olds were sometimes included. The Selective Service draft required men to be at least 18, but 17-year-olds could register with parental consent. Women were barred from combat positions, but could enlist in a variety of administrative and nursing roles with the Army and Navy. And hundreds of thousands of young men and women were deemed vital to national defense to farm, weld, and manufacture American resources at home. Just as young men on the frontlines needed occasional R&R, so too did the young men and women still in the US.
The problem was where to go. To Recreational Representative Kinder, the problem was there was simply no physical place to go.
The answer came in the form of so-called Teen Towns. Columbia, MO pointed to one example, “The first of its kind in Missouri. It was everything the heart of the youth craves—soda bar, dance floor, jukebox, and games. It is the students’ very own and is ‘packing ‘em in’.”
Finding space and volunteers to chaperone Teen Towns proved challenging when National Guard, Army, and Navy divisions had taken over public buildings, fairgrounds, and gymnasiums. Joplin, MO renovated a vacant garage at a small cost to the city. Elsewhere in the US, Teen Towns were organized in empty fields, barns, or parks. While the most elaborate had live bands, soda fountains, game boards like table tennis, and food, many humbly favored dancing to a record player.
Warren County’s Teen Town takes off
Teen Towns were expanding in larger cities as early as the mid-1940s. Warren County, like much of the nation, wouldn’t really take off until as much as ten years later into the 1950s, but not for want of trying. As early as May 1944 Miss Jewell Lynn Knight was encouraging the Warren County Chamber of Commerce to establish a Teen Town in Warrenton. That measure was forwarded to the Community Welfare Committee where local high school students spoke to chairman J.B. Grinnell.
The wheels of government turned slowly, however. Eighteen months later and students from Warrenton High School’s student council were still explaining the concept of Teen Town to local leaders. Merlin Hutchison, president of the council, suggested the basement of Kessler Hall would be a fine meeting place as soon as plaster and paint were applied.
The students planned to sell membership cards for 50 cents each to afford a jukebox.
Physical spaces were somewhat controllable, with students able to raise funds and do repairs. But adult chaperones proved challenging to recruit.
The initial plan was to have civic groups or churches sponsor Teen Town. In 1947, the first Teen Town met in the basement of Kessler Hall sponsored by the PTA. But within a year the group decided they would not sponsor the event anymore and suggested the American Legion might do so instead and lend use of their hall.
The lack of a sponsor was likely a reason Teen Town faltered until late in 1952 when the VFW began to sponsor to the envy of other communities. By 1953 after World War II had closed and the Korean War had opened, VFW Post 2180 was hosting Teen Town every Tuesday night from 7:30 to 10 p.m. “The young people of Warrenton are fortunate to have this opportunity,” William Frick told a reporter. The Vice Commander of Post 2180 added, “Other towns larger than ours have tried unsuccessfully to establish Teen Towns.” His counterpart in Fulton “Looks upon Warrenton’s endeavor with awe and a bit of green-eyed envy.”
Still, the organization and membership of Teen Town remained in flux. Student leaders naturally aged out, finding replacements proved challenging, and in that great American way a lot of people decried they were “too busy.”
In October 1955, the Warrenton Banner reported “Teen Town Organized” as if it was a new idea. It was sponsored again by VFW Post 2180, and the Dorcas Society of the Evangelical and Reformed Church. The report notes:
A committee from these three organizations has been having meetings and planning details. It was decided to have dances twice monthly, on Tuesdays, from 7:30 to 10:00 p.m. Tickets have been printed, and all teenagers will be welcome. To start this year, a teenage committee from Area III High School was selected to supervise the operation of this organization. This committee will consist of the Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the four grades in high school and the eighth grade.
Dances were the primary event at each Teen Town, seemingly always divided with boys on one side and girls on the other. Groups from local FFA and Girl’s Youth Club also took active roles in sponsoring Teen Town events, such as a fashion show in December 1955 designed to raise money for the Town.
One prescient reporter noted that same year, “The goal is to raise enough money to organize a Teen Town where they can meet and have socials and dances in a wholesome environment. The teenagers face their problems and can find solutions better than they are credited for by adults, but it is the failing of the older generation to help them reach these goals that causes so many of our Youth Problems [sic] today.”
Despite some of the good intentions and supervision of adults, many parents prohibited their kids from attending due to prevailing conservative attitudes toward new music, dances, and the opposite gender.
Changing moods diminish Teen Towns
Teen Towns proved immensely popular in the 1950s and 60s despite rough starts with space and supplies in the early years. But in the late 1960s, fractures in adult support started to show. In May 1967, the Teen Town Committee and representatives of long-time sponsor VFW Post 2180 reported that the twice-monthly event, by then held only in the summer, was struggling to find chaperones. Chaperones were expected to come from both parents of committee members and VFW members. But finding willing supervisors of two dozen teens for two and a half hours every other Wednesday was becoming “more troublesome.” The threatened closure of Teen Town, already suspended in July and August due to intense heat, was real.
By 1970, most Teen Towns in the US, including Warren County’s, had been abandoned. Other forms of entertainment, notably television, supplanted dances. The youth counterculture of the 60s rejected formal supervision, and as women re-entered the workforce, dual-income families with working parents led to greater autonomy — and less supervision — for youth. Larger, more formal youth programs like youth sports, educational clubs, and after-school programs also supplanted the smaller Teen Towns.
But the legacy of Teen Towns persists today in youth centers and recreation programs that stove to offer a safe, supportive environment for kids and teens.
Works cited in this piece include
- Apr 08, 1948, Page 1 – Warrenton Banner
- Dec 08, 1955, Page 1 – Warrenton Banner
- Dec 15, 1955, Page 2 – Warrenton Banner
- Jan 13, 1944, Page 6 – Warrenton Banner
- Jan 17, 1946, Page 1 – Warrenton Banner
- Jun 25, 1953, Page 1 – Warrenton Banner
- Jun 29, 1944, Page 1 – Warrenton Banner
- May 23, 1944, Page 8 – Warrenton Banner
- May 25, 1967, Page 1 – Warrenton Banner
- Oct 26, 1950, Page 1 – Warrenton Banner
- Oct 27, 1955, Page 1 – Warrenton Banner
