Waco enjoyed an unprecedented level of economic prosperity when cotton was king in the early twentieth century. During this period, Waco’s prominent families commissioned residences that would speak to their affluence and elevated station. The Migel House at 1425 Columbus Avenue stands as an impressive architectural reminder of those boom years and the private citizens who sought to create a legacy for themselves through brick and mortar.

When investor Nelson Smith relocated to Waco from nearby Belton, Texas, he commissioned legendary Waco architect Milton W. Scott to build his family home on Columbus Avenue. Completed in 1910, the mansion served as the Smith residence for only a few years before it was sold to Louey Migel. A prominent Wacoan in his own right, Migel was part owner of the Goldstein-Migel department store which was a fixture in Waco retail for many years. The Migel family owned the house until 1969. In the years following, the house functioned as off-campus housing for Baylor University until the Freeman House paid $200,000 to use the residence as the women’s dormitory for its drug rehabilitation program. The Migel House is now privately owned.

The Migel House is a beautiful example of Beaux Arts revival style. Its Doric columns and the urns flanking the front walkway are reminiscent of a Greek temple, while the terra-cotta tiles and scalloped roof recall the architecture of a Spanish mission. The brickwork featuring festoons and cartouches makes this two-story structure one of the most uniquely adorned historic houses in Waco. The exterior of the house has remained largely the same for more than a century.

The driveway is covered by a brick porte cochere. A carriage house, built at the same time as the Migel House, sits in the back corner of the property and echoes the Beaux-Arts style.

The interior of the house has much of its original moulding, pocket doors, hand-painted canvas wallpaper, and stained glass windows. The full basement of this more than 10,000- square-foot home features a wooden bowling lane. Notably, the house survived the great tornado of 1953 that ripped through downtown Waco.

The Migel House remains a testament to a golden age of Waco architecture and the affluence that made such residences possible.  

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Prior to the construction of the Grand Lodge of Texas, a freemason-affiliated organization known as the Karem Shriners built the grandiose Karem Shrine Temple at Seventh and Washington. Substantial in size and embellished with Masonic emblems, the building drew in Shriners across Texas and around the country.

The Shriners, or the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, originated in New York in the late nineteenth century. The founders, Walter M. Fleming and William J. Florence, sought to form a fraternal organization complete with social activities and philanthropic opportunities for freemasons. Though freemason membership did not require involvement with the Shrine, only members of the Scottish Rite or York Rite who had reached Master Mason status could become Shriners. The order grew rapidly at the turn of the century, boasting 55,000 national members by 1900.

In January 1919, freemasons in Waco established a local Shriner order. Locals W.A. Parker, N.D. Naman, A.J. Dossett, and W.F. Quebe met with Shriners in Dallas as they endeavored to grow the new Karem Shrine from its original one hundred members. To gain a formal charter, the Karem Shriners acquired six hundred signatures from supporters across the community. Upon reaching the necessary requirements for the charter, the organization hosted a celebratory ceremony on July 4, where hundreds more expressed interest in membership.

By April 1920, the Shriners had named the Divian, or the leaders, of the Karem Shrine organization and reached over one thousand members. Within the order, branches for the patrol and band formed. At many galas, dinners, and other social gatherings, the Karem Shrine band provided entertainment. Locations such as the prominent downtown Raleigh Hotel hosted Shriner ceremonies and dances where the Shriners’ notable regalia, which included a fez, often appeared. 

In addition to social events, Shriners conducted extensive charity work. Initially, Shrine orders provided aid to children with polio but expanded their philanthropic efforts to include children with spinal cord injuries as well as pediatric burn victims. By 1927, the Karem Shrine organization had donated over $25,000 to pediatric hospitals and continued their fundraising efforts through local drives to support the Shrine Hospital in Houston. They also regularly hosted Karem Shrine Circuses and Carnivals and partnered with community organizations, such as the Salvation Army, to provide shoes and other necessities to children in need. 

From the time of its establishment throughout the 1920s, the Karem Shrine met in the Grand Lodge of Texas at Eighth and Columbus. As the local order continued to grow, the Shriners decided to construct their own building. They hoped to create a space that would attract freemasons from across the United States and result in further growth of Shriner membership. In 1927, Dallas architects Greene, LaRoche, and Dahl created architectural plans for the new Karem Shrine Temple building on Seventh and Washington, and Wacoan Roy Ellsworth Lane worked as associate architect. Waco’s J.S. Harrison Construction Company planned to begin construction in November 1927.

The quarter of a million-dollar project, over four million dollars today, consisted of three stories and a basement. The ground floor contained several stores and areas available for local businesses and organizations to rent. The second floor held a dining room with a 150-person capacity and large kitchen as well as game rooms for pool and billiards, offices for Shrine officials, and meeting spaces for the patrol and band. The third floor comprised an elaborate dance hall and a rooftop garden that overlooked downtown Waco. The lavish architecture attracted two thousand Shriners from across the state to the building’s dedication day in November 1928. That day, visitors gathered at the ceremony where Texas Senator Tom Connally addressed the audience. The building opened for public viewing on November 30, and the Karem Shriners declared the Temple structure one of the most sophisticated in the Southwest.

The Karem Shriners remained at 701 Washington Avenue until they relocated in 1995. At that time, McLennan County officials purchased the structure, and the organization’s headquarters moved to the outskirts of Waco on North River Crossing. Though the county utilized office space in the building, it remained mostly vacant—other than the remaining scimitars, double eagles, and Masonic symbols featured on the ground level.

In 2018, the county placed the building for sale through Peevey Real Estate Company. Buyers from across the country expressed interest in the historic building, but local renovators Chip and Joanna Gaines acquired the structure through Magnolia Vacation Rentals. The Fixer Upper stars have plans to develop the building into a boutique hotel called Hotel 1928 by Fall 2023.

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Wildlife expert and storyteller Harley Berg provided entertainment for those across Central Texas in the mid-twentieth century. Broadcasting from the local KWTX to the homes of Wacoans, the Harley Berg Show emphasized the importance of wildlife and provided conservation tips. Engrossed by Berg’s animal exhibits and captivating narratives, viewers tuned in weekly to the popular show.

Fascinated by wildlife since his youth, Berg enjoyed hunting, fishing, and exploring nature from his family’s move to Texas in 1913. Those early interests guided his career path as he decided to become a game warden. Berg, along with his wife, son, and mother-in-law, eventually settled in Waco in late 1949, where he continued his work as a game warden. His passion for wildlife inspired the creation of a traveling wildlife exhibit sponsored by the Parks and Wildlife Department and often featured at state fairs. The subsequent popularity of the exhibit spurred KWTX’s general manager M.N. “Buddy” Bostick to invite Berg to the big screen.

The first episode of the Harley Berg Show premiered on April 4, 1955, at 7:30 p.m. Donning his game warden uniform, Berg began telling stories he had collected over the years while he displayed a largemouth bass, green sunfish, and bluegill. In the episodes that followed, Berg featured various animals brought in from the San Antonio Zoo, including mountain lions, snakes, porcupines, and various species of fish. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department provided funding for the animals’ transportation, but Berg hosted the show nearly free of charge. He appeared regularly on Monday evenings in a half-hour slot, live and unscripted.

Messages that encouraged the protection of wildlife struck Berg as most important. He taught his audience about ecosystems and how they could improve wildlife habitats. He explained how overfishing led to dilapidated lakes and why listeners should not hunt nongame wildlife. Once, he brought a hawk on the show to explain that hawks helped control rats, mice, and other insects and did not pose a threat. He also outlined the importance of poisonous snakes and spiders and informed viewers of protocols if ever bitten. Many viewers expressed that Berg’s informative show helped them protect themselves and animals when they encountered wildlife in their communities.

Despite the show’s popularity, the television station briefly halted production after they were acquired by a larger network. Complaints from those in the community spurred the show’s reinstatement. Though the network initially provided a fifteen-minute slot, Berg contended that he needed more time to tell his stories. While some stories contained exaggerations, many came from Berg’s personal experiences. His fascinating tales about nature and wildlife remained a prominent feature of the show, and with broad audience support, the Harley Berg Show began once more on Sunday afternoons in a half-hour slot, where the show remained until its final episode.

Though the show primarily focused on wildlife, Berg also diverged into other topics that he felt offered important information to viewers. He provided recipes for deer chili and deer jerky. One episode touched on how to identify glaucoma, which aired after Berg was diagnosed with the eye disease. He also received over two thousand requests for a printed snake bulletin that contained information regarding identification of poisonous snakes and first-aid, which he sent to viewers across Central Texas. And after years of transporting animals from San Antonio to Waco, he sought to form a local zoo. The local zoo project and Berg’s wildlife advocacy aided the later establishment of Cameron Park Zoo.

Those who watched the Harley Berg Show ranged from people in nursing homes to schoolchildren. Fisherman, doctors, farmers, preachers, and professors expressed interest in the show and wrote letters to signal their support of Berg’s work. When The Texas Outdoorsman magazine featured Berg on the front cover, hundreds of viewers requested autographed copies. He received invitations to speak at universities across the state, including Texas Christian University, Baylor University, and Texas Southern University. He also spoke to Boy Scout and Girl Scout camps and elementary and high school students. With over nine hundred episodes airing over the years, Berg relished the support of viewers across Texas.

At the end of each episode, Berg concluded in three languages—English, German, and Spanish. In what became his signature sign off, Berg stated, “This is your old wildlife man saying, amigos grande y chiquitos, grosse und kleine freunden, big and little friends, bye for now.” He continued to close out with that message until the late 1970s. Remembered as a friend to wildlife, Berg passed away in 1979.

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Once considered a hub for racist activity, Waco served as headquarters for writer and editor Horace Sherman Miller. An avowed white supremacist, Miller perpetuated and propagated racist ideas in the mid-twentieth century. He printed his newsletter, The Aryan Views—White Folks News, in Waco and circulated the publication across the world from 1950 until his death in 1964.

Born in Central Texas in 1901 to Claude Thomas Miller and Lema Yarbro Miller, Horace Sherman Miller grew up in poverty and had an eventful youth. His family moved around the state and out of the country as they searched for opportunities on the railroad. During this turbulent period, Miller’s education discontinued. He never attended high school and began his own career with the railroad at age fourteen. He worked in Smithville until April 1917, when he lied about his age and enlisted in the US Navy during World War I. Discharged in 1919, Miller returned to a job with the railroad. He continued working for railroad companies across Texas for twenty-five years. During that time, Miller married in 1932, but his wife had abandoned him by 1944.

Diagnosed with advanced tuberculosis, Miller began to bounce to various sanitoriums across the country and pursued experimental treatments. By 1949, emaciated and bed-ridden, Miller returned to live with his mother and stepfather, William Norris “Nug” Skinner, in Waco. Once in Waco, Miller began to promote white supremacist ideologies, especially following the 1954 Brown v Board decision. Though considered a shut-in due to his tuberculosis, Miller joined the Ku Klux Klan in 1955 and became a Texas Kleagle or recruiting officer. Following the advice and mentorship of Harry William Pyle, a white supremacist based in Memphis, Tennessee, Miller began organizing and using the status of the Klan to push his message of Aryanism. Eventually, Pyle and Miller split after a dispute over how to pursue white supremacist efforts and their differing ideologies toward Aryanism.

Despite the rift with Pyle, Miller continued using Klan influence to promote his message until 1957. That year, the Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Eldon Edwards rescinded Miller’s membership for failure to create any Klan units in Texas in his two years as Kleagle as well as for Miller’s inclination to promote personal interests. Miller’s agenda and ideas continued to gain momentum, however, especially with the creation of his own mail-order white supremacist group, the Aryan Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. With a typewriter hanging over his bed, Miller began to publish his own newsletter, which featured various titles over the years, including The Aryan Defender and The Aryan Knight Views.

His earlier friendship with Pyle not only aided Miller’s short-term participation in the Ku Klux Klan but also helped him launch the newsletter. Pyle functioned as a mentor, edited his writing, and encouraged the publication of The Aryan Views—White Folks News. By 1952, the newsletter had one thousand subscribers, and over the years, subscriber numbers steadily increased. Though affiliated with various white supremacist organizations, Miller personally funded the newsletter. He produced over one thousand copies of each edition and potentially reached more readers through his encouragement to “Read and pass on, please”—a phrase that concluded each issue. Though Miller complained of financial burden, he continued to publish the newsletter until his death in 1964.

The newsletter featured Miller’s views—his anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism, opposition to immigration, disapproval of integration and anti-Blackness, anti-communism, and general distrust of the federal government. Miller advocated for states’ rights, praised the Confederacy, and supported white Christian nationalist efforts. While the newsletter featured some of Miller’s personal writing, by 1958, he primarily cut and pasted articles from other white supremacist newspapers. Offering unsubstantiated facts and engaging in fearmongering tactics, Miller insisted that non-white peoples threatened the “white race,” and his ideas permeated across the country and world, particularly in Latin America. The content of Miller’s newsletter struck a chord with like-minded individuals and groups in other countries and served as a catalyst for Klan-type units and white supremacist networks globally. South America and central Europe were rife with such organizations, and countries like Argentina, Chile, South Africa, and Sweden looked to the American Klan as a guide for pushing their own white supremacist agendas.

Miller’s publication spread around the globe by his own distribution as well as through sharing amongst groups, which resulted in greater influence abroad than in the US. Miller printed and mailed over nine hundred issues of the newsletter between 1950-1964. Upon his passing, the mail-order newsletter and sponsoring group died out. Miller donated his collection, including his newsletters, correspondence, and propaganda materials from other countries to The Texas Collection for preservation and future study. While the Aryan Knights of the Ku Klux Klan ceased to exist, Miller’s documents reveal the presence and prevalence of white supremacist ideologies over time and how those forces shape the past and present.

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With a bellowing voice and masterful piano playing, Mercy Dee Walton emerged as an early influence in rhythm and blues not only in Waco but across the country. Towering figures such as Ma Rainey and Fats Domino are rightfully remembered as foundational for the blues and later rock n’ roll, but artists with less recording opportunities, like Walton, also shaped the country’s music scene in the early twentieth century.

Walton grew up on the water. His parents, Fred and Bessie Walton, worked on a small farm on the banks of Brazos in Waco and welcomed their son on August 30, 1915. Though a young Mercy Dee Walton worked the corn and cotton fields, he found himself captivated by local music. Aspiring musicians traversed Texas, performing on stages and in homes for little to nothing. Thirteen-year-old Walton listened, soaking in soulful vocals and rhythmic instrumentals. The blues artists he heard told stories of hardship and of love to steel guitar and striking barrelhouse piano arrangements. Searching for his own voice, Walton began to play piano and sing the blues at ten-cent house parties, where locals could pay a dime to hear the young artist hone his skills.

Waco’s own musicians influenced Walton’s sound. Unrecorded artists, such as Pete the Grey Ghost and Delois Maxey, impacted his style and song. Though many blues artists of the early twentieth century never recorded albums, their artistry formed other musicians. When Walton witnessed Maxey’s piano expertise at house parties, for example, he modeled his own playing after him. Others also influenced his sound, including Waco and Marlin piano players Son Brewster and Bob Jackson. Though labels never captured their talents, their inflections remained present in the work of later blues musicians.

Audiences certainly understood the talent of these rising artists. As Walton grew in popularity, he moved from intimate venues to larger crowds in Fort Worth. In the early 1930s, he took the stage at the Dixie and Bryson Taverns. Other emerging musicians, such as Pinetop Shorty, joined him. After playing the Texas circuit, Walton decided to move westward to an up-and-coming music metropolis, Los Angeles, in the late 1930s.

While playing around Fresno, Chester Lu, an executive at a smaller recording label called Spire Company, heard Walton’s talent. Walton recorded his first song “Lonesome Cabin Blues” with Spire. Though the song rose to the top ten on R&B charts, Walton’s performances and albums did not result in financial prosperity. As he sang about his troubles on stage, they persisted in his life as he continued to labor for little pay. For instance, at one venue, Walton performed for a few dollars and a hot meal. Agricultural work provided supplemental income as Walton continued to pursue his musical career, and he often performed at bars where Black farmworkers gathered to listen to lyrics that illustrated their experiences. 

After reaching number seven on the charts with “Lonesome Cabin Blues,” Walton cut a record with Imperial Records. The songs never charted, and Walton did not record any more songs with Imperial. Things changed when Walton joined Specialty Records. He recorded his hit song “One Room Country Shack” in May 1952, and garnered national attention. He briefly toured with the popular Jay McNeely Band, whose smooth saxophone sound skyrocketed the group to the top of the Billboard charts. A long way from the Texas circuit, Walton traveled across the country, singing popular tracks, such as “Roamin’ Blues” and “Romp & Stomp Blues,” in auditoriums for large crowds. One song that captured fans’ attention was “Rent Man Blues,” which featured Walton’s wife, Thelma Walton, who received the pseudonym Lady Fox on the record.

Walton cut more records with Specialty, but none accumulated extensive recognition. Notably, payola, the practice of bribing radio hosts to play certain songs to increase an artist’s popularity and a label’s success, ran rampant throughout Walton’s career. Though he recorded with two small labels, Rhythm and Flair, in the mid-1950s, his albums did not reach previous heights on the charts. He moved to Stockton, California, where he continued agricultural work and played music on a smaller scale.

Though Walton’s recording opportunities seemed to decline over time, in 1961, record producer and blues fan Chris Strachwitz began to record with Walton on his newly founded label, Arhoolie. With his remarkable barrelhouse piano style, Walton put down multiple tracks with Strachwitz. Tragically, as his career seemed to be resurging in the recording studio, Walton died suddenly in December 1962. Though his recordings remain few, his conceptions of rhythm and blues live on, shaping artists in Waco and beyond.

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Seeking to provide refuge to children and families in need, the Evangelia Settlement Home opened in 1908. Established by religious reformers Ethel Dickson and Nell Symes, the home aimed to care for the least of these throughout Waco’s community for nearly a century.

Evangelia Settlement was part of a broader settlement house movement that began in Great Britain and moved to the United States. In the late nineteenth century, white, middle- and upper-class women, often motivated by their Christian faith, began to establish homes for those in low-income areas with few resources. Settlement houses popped up across the country. Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr established one of the most well-known settlement houses, Hull House, in Chicago, Illinois. As the movement spread across the country in the early twentieth century, an estimated eighteen settlements opened throughout Texas, including in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Waco.

Inspired by a traveling evangelist who spoke in Waco, Dickson and Symes opened a small nursery on Webster Street. Initially a modest room located on Thirteenth Street, Waco’s Evangelia Settlement began as a humble effort to care for children whose mothers worked as sewing machine operators at Slayden-Kirskey Woolen Mills. Seeking to expand Evangelia’s reach as a charitable, educational, and religious institution, the founders partnered with Protestant churches in the area to garner community support and to secure funding.

By 1910, with financial aid from local churches, volunteers for Evangelia Settlement began working from a rental house. The next year, additional donations from Waco citizens enabled the opening of Evangelia’s own home, complete with a playground and five full-time staff. The State of Texas issued a charter for Evangelia Settlement Home in June 1912. Though backed by the state government, Evangelia’s board members and volunteers continued to depend on community support.

Donations and funding from those across Waco provided necessary aid for the growing settlement house. An upper floor and additional rooms were added to Evangelia in the late 1910s, and the Karem Shrine constructed a building for boys and a space for kindergarten classes in 1927. The Waco Community Chest, organized in 1924, regularly allocated money to Evangelia, and other generous donors also helped improve the building. For instance, donations from the Cooper Foundation, United Way, and the Andrew J. Dossett family facilitated the construction of a cottage for infants. Later in 1953, Evangelia operated with financial support from the United Fund of Waco and continued to improve the building on site. With each expansion, Evangelia Settlement grew in capacity and provided additional children with housing, meals, and educational and religious instruction.

In partnership with the Salvation Army and the YMCA, Evangelia joined the “Yes-For-Youth” Building Fund Campaign in 1956. The fund enabled the construction of a new building, which opened in June 1958. From 510 South Twelfth Street, Evangelia volunteers and workers continued their efforts to serve children and families throughout the community. By the late 1950s, Evangelia was authorized to care for sixty-two children and offered twenty-four-hour day care. To subsidize costs, parents paid on an individual basis, and the price of care depended on each family’s financial situation. Some children stayed for free, while others paid around five dollars a week per child. For those who placed their children in twenty-four-hour care, Evangelia sought to provide parental education so that children could eventually return home. Still, depending on the family’s circumstances, others were placed in foster homes and at times, orphanages.

Hoping to accept the growing number of interested families, Evangelia continued to expand throughout the mid-twentieth century. Despite Evangelia’s broad efforts, though, the institution remained segregated from its founding until the mid-1960s and only offered resources to white parents and children. Other organizations, including the Joyce Stamps Nursery and the Latin American Neighborhood Center provided care for Black and Latino children in the area.

By the 1970s, Evangelia offered services to over one hundred children and continued to partner with community organizations to ensure children received necessary care. Evangelia held kindergarten classes for children not yet enrolled in school, and for those who attended Waco Public Schools, Evangelia provided after-school care to assist working parents. The settlement house worked with social workers, public school teachers, nurses, doctors, and psychologists. Providing resources to children and families in need remained central to Evangelia’s efforts.

Evangelia Settlement continued to operate in Waco until the state denied their licensure in 2007. After advocacy from Buck Cole, whose family found refuge at Evangelia Settlement in the mid-twentieth century, the Texas Historical Commission placed a marker at the site in 2022. While the settlement house no longer exists in its original form, the site now accommodates EOAC Head Start, an organization that provides educational opportunities and childcare to families across McLennan and Fall Counties. Other organizations in Waco also heed the message of communal care that Evangelia promoted. The Good Neighbor House, founded in 2016, draws on the settlement house movement as its volunteers and workers aim to provide resources and enrichment for Waco’s youth. Through these organizations, Evangelia Settlement’s effort to support under resourced children and families endures.

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In 1969, in response to health-care disparities in Waco and McLennan County, local leaders and physicians established the Family Practice Center, now called Waco Family Medicine. Prior to these efforts, many Wacoans lacked access to adequate medical services. In fact, the patient-doctor ratio was 1,200 to 1. Seeing a profound community need, a partnership between community leaders and the McLennan County Medical Society sought to bridge this divide between patients’ needs, particularly those in poverty, and health-care access. Further, they officially started the Waco-McLennan County Family Practice Residency Program in 1970, the first of its kind in Texas. Through this program and the establishment of the Family Practice Center, they hoped to attract new physicians to Waco and to provide medical care to those in need.

The Family Practice Residency Program accepted its first two residents, Bing Oei and Julia Esquivel, on July 1, 1970. Learning from local physicians, including the first hired faculty Dr. May Wang, they graduated in 1972. Over the years, the residency program continued to expand and emphasize medical education as one of their primary goals as they trained physicians locally. While some went to practice in other states and countries, many stayed in Texas. As of 2017, over 300 of the 400-plus graduates practiced in the state. Further, McLennan County’s active physician population increased as the program expanded. Within thirty years, the number of family doctors in the area increased from 130 to over 300. In addition to resident education, the Family Practice Center also opened the Faculty Development Center in 1978, where practicing family physicians could continue learning, staying up to date on evolving medical practices.

During the Family Practice Center’s initial community outreach efforts in the 1970s, they also opened their first clinic at 1700 Providence Drive. At this location, they began their mission to provide care for residents with lower incomes and those without private or government-supported health insurance. Further, beginning in 1971, the Family Practice Center worked to meet the needs of community members without access to transportation. Thus, their mobile clinic went into communities across Waco and McLennan County, offering medical options to those who could have otherwise gone without care. These efforts ended in 1976 as the Family Health Center began establishing additional health centers across the community. With easier access, mobile clinic use decreased, and patients were able to commute to the clinic nearest them.

The rise in physician, resident, and patient numbers required building expansion. In 1983, the Family Health Center relocated up the road to 1600 Providence Drive; a shift made possible through their fundraising efforts and subsequent, generous donations from the public. Previous CEO Dr. Roland Goertz and other leaders within the clinic also saw a need for federal funding to assist their community care goals. As of 1999, the clinic became a Federally Qualified Health Center, able to receive federal funding to sustain their expansive services and enable continued growth. Since then, additional clinic locations have been added, expanding sites available to the public.

CEO Dr. Jackson Griggs and local board members renamed the Family Health Center Waco Family Medicine in 2021, a name that reiterates the clinic’s dedication to providing primary care for the community. With a variety of locations across Waco and McLennan County, Waco Family Medicine’s physicians and staff work to ensure better medical access for patients in the area. They persist in their original mission to provide health care for underserved populations and to offer educational opportunities for physicians. Their outreach in the community continues, as they offer care for medical, dental, and behavioral health to those in need throughout McLennan County.

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On a muggy, Texas summer night in 1982, tragedy struck. Three Waxahachie teenagers—Raylene Rice, Jill Montgomery, and Kenneth Franks—were murdered in Speegleville Park, near Lake Waco, on July thirteenth. In the following months, a complex criminal case unfolded, one that sparked local and national attention.

The murders put the city of Waco on edge. Local newspapers reported that Wacoans were fearful, taking extra protective measures and even advocating for park curfews. People wondered how such a violent crime could happen in the small, quaint city of Waco, Texas. Tensions were high, and the Waco Police Department began to search diligently for those responsible and for those who had any knowledge of what happened near the lake that night. Soon, the Waco Police Department, with Officer Truman Simons at the forefront of the case, had four suspects: Muneer Mohammed Deeb, David Wayne Spence, Gilbert Melendez, and Gilbert’s brother Anthony Melendez. Officers questioned and subsequently arrested the suspects. Simons, along with Officers Ramon Salinas and Dennis Baier, believed that Deeb had hired Spence and the Melendez brothers to kill Gayle Kelley, who looked like Jill Montgomery, the Waxahachie teenager visiting Waco with her friends. Investigators suspected that Deeb wanted to collect on an insurance policy he had recently taken out on Kelley and that the killers mistook Montgomery for Kelley, murdered her, and then murdered her friends to cover their tracks. To the relief of the department and those in the community, it seemed that the case had been solved.

District Attorney Vic Feazell prosecuted the case, and while wary of Simons’ questioning tactics, placed him, Salinas, and Baier on the task force. But the case did not seem firmly in their grasp. Discrepancies in suspect testimony called conclusions into question, and the story of what happened that night was anything but clear. In April 1983, the DA’ s office got the evidence they had been searching for. Homer Campbell, a forensic odontologist—someone who studies bite marks—insisted that the marks on the girls’ bodies matched the teeth of David Wayne Spence. With this evidence and the incriminating testimonies of the Melendez brothers, local law enforcement officials believed the case was closed.

Over the next few years, trials ensued. The court found all suspects guilty and sentenced them to prison, with Spence and Deeb receiving the death penalty. While the case certainly captivated the attention of Wacoans and Texans, the story also appeared on national news. In 1986, award-winning author Carlton Sowers published Careless Whispers, creatively recounting the case. Discussions of Spence’s death row sentence appeared in The New York Times and in an HBO documentary. Prior to his execution, young attorneys with the Texas Resource Center, a nonprofit that represented death row inmates, endeavored to stave off the death penalty. Rob Owen and Raoul Schonemann sought to highlight the inadequacies in the investigation. Though their efforts remained unsuccessful and the State of Texas still executed Spence, their defense called previous judgments into question. Following Spence’s execution on April 3, 1997, Dateline featured the case—questioning Spence’s guilt.

In Spence’s appeals, his defenders argued that the state mishandled the case. They contended that the verdict hinged on a questionable, likely false, odontology report. Later, Deeb and Gilbert Melendez also recanted their confessions, insisting that they had been pressured by local law enforcement. Eventually, the state exonerated Deeb. Indeed, as the years passed, it seemed that what was once a closed case was now a cold case.

The 1982 Lake Waco murders continued to pique interest, as journalists and reporters expressed interest in the handling, and likely mishandling, of the case. In the end, only questions remain. While some might continue to insist on the involvement of Deeb, Spence, and the Melendez brothers, others would contend their confessions and convictions were misguided and unfounded. Perhaps in the end, all might agree that a grave tragedy occurred in Waco on July 13, 1982, and that tragedy continued in a complex case that left many Wacoans, Texans, and Americans pondering questions about life, death, and justice.

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For many immigrants throughout the 1800s, the United States seemed to be a land filled with promise. Texas, in particular, appeared to be a place where dreams could be fulfilled. Otto Monnig, a Prussian immigrant to Missouri, believed this to be true. In 1870, Monnig opened a Family General Store in Gasconade County, Missouri, where he sold clothing, toys, and groceries, while also running a drugstore and post office. This business venture served as a precursor for what was to come for the Monnig family. In April 1889, after sending his son William Monnig to assess business prospects in Texas, he decided to open Monnig’s Dry Goods and Hardware Store in Fort Worth, the fifth largest city in Texas.

For the Monnigs, the promise of a better life held true. Business boomed. In fact, on opening day, Monnig’s department store brought in $44—over $1,000 today. The enterprise continued to expand its inventory and remained in competition against other notable Texas businesses like Cox’s. In 1900, after investing in bulk merchandise, their business model expanded, and they also entered the wholesale dry goods business. The retail and wholesale divisions continued successfully, and the business opened locations across the state, including one in an up-and-coming Texas city: Waco.

Otto Edward Monnig supervised the expansion project, following in his father’s and uncle’s footsteps. Though he had lived in Waco and since moved to California, his wife convinced him to return. That advice proved sound as he became the operator of Monnig’s in Waco, growing the business and its inventory.

The first Waco location opened in 1932 on Fifth and Washington, continuing the retail and wholesale model. Monnig’s, branded as “the Friendly Store,” now offered more than dry goods and hardware. The store sold clothes, groceries, toys, beauty products, candy, and flowers, and still maintained their wholesale business. Customers who could not make it to the store had the option to call a “Miss Shopper,” an employee who could shop for needed items and ensure their delivery. With an abundance of merchandise and a growing retail division, the Monnigs decided to open an additional location in town.

The new Monnig’s opened at 604 Austin Avenue on August 27, 1936. While the Waco department store branched out into the downtown area, the grocery division remained at the old location, 120 North Fifth Street. This new location offered an extensive variety of clothing, furniture, and other retail items. After leasing the Horne Building, the business dedicated the 60-by-165-feet ground level to merchandise alone. The second floor remained utilized as storage space for wholesale materials.

Thrilled at the department store’s expansion, Wacoans rushed out to opening day. Multiple local businesses endorsed Monnig’s, including The First National Bank of Waco and Mailander & Company, who aided in the three-month remodeling process. The store expected such an influx of people that they opened at nine o’clock in the morning, rather than eight thirty, to ensure that employees could prepare for the rush.

Though Monnig’s survived the historic 1953 Waco tornado and nationally vexing financial periods, the business eventually filed for bankruptcy in 1988. Monnig’s department stores across Texas closed their doors, and in 1989, Chrysler Technologies Airborne Systems (CTAS) occupied the old Monnig’s building at Seventh and Austin. By 1990, bankruptcy resulted in the closing of all seven Monnig’s locations across Texas. Still, many Wacoans reflected fondly on the local store during its decades of success. While Monnig’s opened business because of the opportunities Texas offered, the Waco department store promised a new future for the downtown area and the city more broadly.

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Born the daughter of educators in segregated Mexia, Texas, in 1941, Mae Allison Johnson developed an early understanding of the significance of education and equality. Her parents, Allison Johnson and Eula King, met while working at a small country school called Salem in Teague, Texas. Together, they instilled the value of learning. At sixteen, Mae Johnson graduated Booker T. Washington High School as valedictorian of her class and attended college at Texas Southern University in Houston. There, fascinated by people and interested in working with others, she first thought she wanted to study sociology, but her desire to work closely with people drove her into the field of social work.

During her collegiate years at Texas Southern, she participated in debate and public speaking, traveling across Texas and around the country for competitions. These travel experiences accentuated the prevalence of segregation and discrimination. At a debate competition at Baylor University, Johnson recalled that they stayed in segregated, lower-scale housing near Paul Quinn College and remembered white Wacoans hurling insults and spitting at the Texas Southern students. These racist encounters reinforced her interest in pursuing justice, especially at the local level.

After briefly working at Riverside National Bank, the first African American-owned bank in Houston, she decided to take a social work position at John Sealy Hospital in Galveston, now part of the University of Texas Medical Branch. Her work there motivated her to return to school, and she graduated from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio with a master’s degree in social work in 1965. Afterward, she relocated to Waco to be near her ailing mother in Teague, and as her mother’s health improved, Johnson moved to work in the civil rights movement.

Previously, while at Texas Southern, she helped connect those arrested in sit-ins to defense attorneys and managed funds for movement efforts. Then, in 1969, she joined the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) and moved to Mississippi until 1971. Under the auspices of the NCNW, she sought to provide public housing for Mississippians in need, working alongside women like Fannie Lou Hamer in Indianola. Her work at the grassroots further cultivated her desire to serve local communities and meet their needs in tangible ways.

Johnson later returned to Waco, worked for the local Methodist Home, and decided to pursue her doctorate. She graduated with a PhD from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1985. As her professional life progressed, she also married Howard Andrew Jackson, with whom she had a stepdaughter, foster son, adopted daughter, and biological daughter. Motivated by her work in the civil rights movement and with the NCNW, Dr. Mae Jackson grew active in the local Democratic Party. She campaigned for Texas Democrats, including Governor Ann Richards, who later appointed Jackson to the Texas State Board of Pardons and Paroles. There, she aimed to improve racist parole policies in Texas prisons by addressing prison overcrowding, harmful living conditions, and a lack in resources needed to care for incarcerated people.

Locally, she served on the Waco City Council, District I, from 2000 to 2004 before she won the mayoral election in May 2004. Dr. Mae Jackson was the first African American woman to become mayor of Waco. During her time in office, she sought to promote education, economic development, and tourism. She sought to upgrade Waco’s Central Library, expand job opportunities in the city, rejuvenate the downtown area, and renovate the convention center. Further, she hoped to better Waco’s water quality and create improved, equitable housing. Sadly, she passed away during her first term on February 11, 2005, leaving a community in mourning. While her political career was cut short, her legacy lives on. Elected to the Waco City Council in 2018, her daughter, Andrea Jackson Barefield, represents District I. Local government leaders regularly meet in the Dr. Mae Jackson Development Center on Franklin Avenue, named in memoriam, and participate in organizations like the Greater Waco Community Education Alliance, formed from Jackson’s vision for education improvement in McLennan County. Dr. Mae Jackson’s influence on the city persists, along with her visions for equality, improved education, and justice for those in Waco, in Texas, and across the country.

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On June 19, 1865, enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, heard the news of their freedom. More than two years earlier, President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation to establish the freedom of enslaved people in Confederate States on January 1, 1863. More than two months prior, on April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered. Still, many Black people remained enslaved, including approximately 250,000 in Texas. The state offered a haven to many white enslavers since no major battles occurred there throughout the Civil War, and enslavers refused to inform enslaved people of their freedom. Yet on Juneteenth in 1865—the day’s name a combination of “June” and “nineteenth”—Union troops arrived in Galveston, bringing news of the emancipation established in January 1863. There, General Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”

Organized by freed Black people in Texas the following year, celebrations of Jubilee Day occurred throughout the state, including Waco. The earliest documented Waco celebration occurred in 1876, which included a two-thousand-person procession led by the Waco Colored Band and local societies, including the Rising Stars and the Young Men’s Club. The groups waved bright-colored banners and wore dazzling uniforms. The parade ended at Waco Creek, in the southern part of the city, where celebrants listened to various speakers and a reading of the Declaration of Independence. Afterward, they danced, sang, and ate together.

Later, in 1913, Black Wacoans organized a celebration at Taborian Park, which included outdoor sports, a picnic, amusement rides, and a balloon release. In the following years, events also included free barbecue, religious services, pageants, softball games, and bicycle races. For Black airmen on James Connally Air Force Base, Juneteenth celebrations included a dance at the Franklin Avenue USO and sporting events at the Elizabeth Lee Center on South Tenth Street. Black employees in Waco also requested the day off from work, and in 1933, Bridge Street, which housed many local Black businesses, closed for part of the day as the community gathered there for a celebratory parade.

Juneteenth celebrations in Waco continued to grow over time. In 1946, the Chicago American Giants and the Memphis Red Sox, both part of the Negro American League, kicked off Juneteenth events at Katy Park, attracting over three thousand fans. These festivities also included broader activist efforts across Texas as Black leaders requested pardons for Black prisoners in the state. As early as June 19, 1925, the governor of Texas granted pardons to forty-five Black prisoners in response to the emancipation celebration day. Later, members of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus advocated for state recognition of the Juneteenth holiday. On June 19, 1979, the bill proposed by Representative Al Edwards of Houston passed, making Texas the first state to establish Juneteenth as a holiday.

Despite this acknowledgement, events that occurred on Juneteenth sometimes highlighted the complex legacies of emancipation. In Limestone County, the town of Mexia regularly hosted one of the largest Juneteenth celebrations in the country, often drawing over twenty thousand people. Those crowds dwindled after 1981, when three young Black men drowned after law enforcement arrested them during celebrations near what locals referred to as Comanche Crossing. Officers crossed Lake Mexia without providing life preservers to Anthony Freeman (18), Carl Baker (19), or Steven Booker (19). The boat began to sink twenty yards from shore, and the three teenagers, two of whom could swim, drowned. The three officers survived, and an all-white jury found them not guilty. The three teenagers’ tragic deaths struck the community hard and impacted Juneteenth celebrations, which now correspond with collective mourning and remembrance of the “Comanche Three.” While Juneteenth remains a celebration of liberation across Texas, such events left many pondering the limits of freedom and justice.

Still, as they did in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Juneteenth celebrations persist in the state and locally in Waco. Juneteenth events include sports competitions, red soda—including Waco’s own Big Red—carnival events, beauty pageants, gospel music performances, and a community-wide parade. Local organizations, including The Heart of Texas Black Chamber of Commerce and the Waco Council of African American Arts, Health & Culture, help coordinate activities throughout the city. These events that occur in Waco and throughout Texas also happen across the country as Americans celebrate emancipation. On June 17, 2021, President Biden signed a bill establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday. Black Americans, though, have acknowledged and celebrated Juneteenth since 1865. Rejoicing in liberation, Black Wacoans, Texans, and Americans celebrate Juneteenth and recognize still the strides left toward freedom.

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Tragedy marked the experiences of many during the Vietnam War. On the home front, Americans increasingly questioned the country’s role in the conflict and lamented the loss they watched unfold throughout the first widely televised war. Americans especially worried over the conditions of US prisoners of war (POWs) held captive in North Vietnam—POWs that had been kept in physically and psychologically harmful conditions for extended periods of time. The North Vietnamese captured and imprisoned these Americans, often pilots in the US Navy or Air Force, for nearly ten years. Prisons in Vietnam received nicknames such as “Alcatraz,” for their severe environments, and “Hanoi Hilton,” an ironic name given to a primary torture site. Some POWs never returned home from their internment and remain unaccounted for.

In the late 1960s, the US Department of State sought to improve the treatment of American POWs and stepped up efforts to bring them home. Local communities pursued ways to assist in these efforts. Texas businessman Ross Perot became especially interested in sending humanitarian supplies to POWs, and he believed that ordinary citizens could make more of a difference than the federal government. Citizens of Waco, along with other towns and cities across the country, heeded Perot’s call.

Beginning in 1970, under the auspices of the Prisoner of War project, thousands of citizens in Waco advocated for American POWs through a letter-writing initiative titled the “Write Hanoi Campaign.” After Perot visited and spoke at Baylor University on March 10, 1971, Wacoans further invested in the project. The city, inspired by Perot’s message, proclaimed the day as “H. Ross Perot Day in Waco” and embraced his invitation by forming a local delegation that would negotiate directly with officials from North Vietnam later that year. Twelve men and women formed an advocacy group on behalf of American POWs, and local attorney C. Cullen Smith served as chairman. By mid-March 1971, they had collected 40,825 letters and petition signatures that demanded humane treatment of POWs in Vietnam, and the delegation prepared to present them at the Paris Peace Talks in April.

Supported by the US State Department, the Waco delegation visited Paris for negotiations with officials in North Vietnam in April 1971. Avoiding approval or disapproval of the war, the effort remained focused on the POWs. Once in Paris, a portion of the group met with officials to persuade them to better the prison camp conditions and improve the treatment of American POWs. Though an immediate change did not occur, in 1973, Operation Homecoming resulted in the return of 591 American POWs held captive in North Vietnam. Upon their return, some shared reports of prison conditions, and Waco’s Mayor Karl May contended that the Waco delegation had “some reason to believe our efforts were not in vain, since prisoners who have returned tell of a change for the better after that time.”

When the group left Paris on April 16, 1971, they wanted to commemorate the inspiration for their efforts. The delegation, mournful of the imprisonment of American POWs and grateful for the freedoms they experienced in the US, discussed how to memorialize the moment. Inspired by the architecture of Paris, they decided to construct a fountain. They planned to inscribe the word “freedom” in seventy different languages at the base of the structure. As they began the process of raising money and planning for the duly named “Freedom Fountain,” they refused large donations and instead requested smaller donations from those across the community. This way, as in the Write Hanoi Campaign, all could contribute. Groups like the Waco Jaycees pledged to raise $10,000, and sixth graders from North Waco Elementary School donated $14 in coins.

More than 750 people attended the dedication of the fountain in May 1973. There, two freed POWs, Colonel George Hall, who had recently settled with his wife and family in her hometown of Waco, and Captain Ronald Bliss, who later attended Baylor Law School before moving to Houston, joined the ceremonies. Wacoans also buried a time capsule underneath the fountain, which contained names and addresses of those who donated their funds along with additional information about the fountain and its origins. At the time of the dedication, the community had raised over $50,000 in support. Still in its original location, the Freedom Fountain sits at the south end of the Waco Convention Center with the word “freedom” inscribed in fifty-four different languages. There, Waco residents can remember the community’s efforts to support American POWs during the Vietnam War and reflect on the meanings of national and global freedom.

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St. James United Methodist Church, originally a Methodist Episcopal church, has existed almost as long as the city of Waco itself. Founded in 1874 by Anderson Brack, a formerly enslaved man, the congregation started with roughly fifty-three members. On the banks of the Brazos River, they worshipped, communed together, and worked to establish a permanent brick-and-mortar building that would serve as a central location for their Christian community. Along with the church, St. James also established a school that provided education to Black children in the Waco area. As they sought to secure a steady meeting place, though, they faced difficulty and discrimination.

Built in 1889, their original building at Second and Ross Streets was the first brick church for African Americans in Waco. St. James, established after Mt. Zion, was the second African American church in the city. After the city of Waco condemned their new building, they built a larger tabernacle in 1909 in the same location. They worshipped there until 1922. That year, the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad Company purchased the property, citing eminent domain, and the St. James congregation built once more. This time, on Second and Clay Avenue.

Under the leadership of Pastor C. S. Williams, the congregation broke ground on the church in March 1924. Utilizing bricks from their previous tabernacles inside the new structure, St. James memorialized and honored the history of their church. Architect Carleton Adams, who garnered statewide and national attention for his home and building designs in San Antonio, developed plans for the Tudor Gothic-style structure. While members were eager to meet in the new location, the congregation experienced financial strain in the years to come after accumulating $85,000 in debt to construct the building, which took thirty-two years to repay.

At Second and Clay, St. James committed themselves to racial justice initiatives in the community as well as interracial partnerships. During the Great Depression, they offered a daily soup kitchen to Wacoans in need. They also held meetings for the “Waco Forward” movement of the 1920s that launched as a local effort to assist those struggling amid economic stagnation. Waco Forward hoped to improve Waco’s economy and usher in an era of progress and stability. St. James also hosted other interracial events, including concerts and women’s groups, as well as a “Race Relations Sunday” service in February 1945. There, they called for attendees to “build a nation and a world where there shall be no discrimination on the basis of color, creed, or national origin.”

After its formation in 1936, the McLennan County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) met multiple times at St. James. At an “NAACP Sunday” event in 1951, which occurred during the civil rights movement, the McLennan County chapter formed a plan that addressed local and national needs. They also hosted another notable meeting in 1955, where the organization expressed their support of the “Free by ‘63” campaign. This campaign effort raised funds for numerous legal cases taking place during the movement. Those a part of the NAACP and the church sought to address and end discrimination in Texas and across the country.

Important to Waco and St. James, multiple prominent members worked within and outside of the church. Robert L. Smith, one of the first Black Americans elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1894, attended St. James. Prior to his arrival in Waco, Smith established the Farmers’ Improvement Society, which aided farmers who had fallen into extensive debt. Inescapable debt particularly impacted previously enslaved people who turned to sharecropping and tenant farming after emancipation. As Smith worked for these communities in Waco, he also served as a steward and legal adviser for the church. J. J. Flewellen and Professor J. S. Henry, principals at Carver High and Kirk Elementary, also attended St. James. Both schools offered educational opportunities to Black students in Waco. Lonnie Morris Belle Hodges, the church’s historian, strove to bring attention to the history of St. James. As the only living descendent of St. James’s charter members with continuing membership, Hodges worked to attain recognition for the history of the congregation and building. In 1986, the building received a Recorded Texas Historical Marker due to her efforts.

The congregation continued to grow over the years, exceeding over six hundred members during their strongest periods. Yet, by 2015, St. James had dwindled once more to fewer than sixty congregants. Deciding to focus more on fellowship and community rather than upkeep of an aging structure, they placed the historic building on the market. The church received a City of Waco Historic Landmark in 2017 and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 12, 2019. St. James remains the only religious structure on the National Register of Historic Places in Waco. The building, purchased by local Wacoans Amy and Lane Murphy, remains a prominent historical landmark for the city. As they transition the church into a restaurant and event space, they plan to preserve the history of the congregation and the building. Members of St. James now meet in another location in Waco, joining with Wesley United Methodist Church each Sunday. There, they continue to commune and worship together. Through the remaining congregation and renovation efforts at Second and Clay, the long history of St. James United Methodist Church persists in Waco.

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At the end of the Civil War, a new nation seemed to be on the horizon. Emancipation and the beginning of Reconstruction signaled a shift in national, state, and local institutions across the country. The Reconstruction Era, though certainly flawed, offered potential equality for Black and white citizens. During this period of immense change, Black men began to vote and entered positions of power previously denied to them. Formerly enslaved and freed men were elected to public office only a few years after the abolition of slavery.

In Texas, voters elected African American legislators throughout Reconstruction, including fifty-two at the state level. Comprised of farmers, businessmen, preachers, teachers, and lawyers, each of these men had different backgrounds. Though many were denied formal education by their enslavers, most were literate, and all joined the Republican, often referred to as the Radical, Party. Through their positions, they sought to improve the lives of Black people whose opportunities remained scarce after emancipation. For many, postwar freedom in Texas meant sharecropping and tenant farming for low wages, often under the supervision of former enslavers. Many Black officials during Reconstruction endeavored to address these oppressions and provide resources to those in need.

Shep Mullens, one of these Black officials in Texas, resided in Waco. Born enslaved in 1828 in Lawrence County, Alabama, Mullens’s white enslavers relocated to Texas in 1854. They eventually moved to Waco by 1860, where Mullens remained following emancipation. On August 23, 1867, he registered to vote in McLennan County. That same year, General Charles Griffin, a military leader stationed in the previously Confederate state, appointed Mullens to County Commissioner and Voter Registrar. Griffin, who worked for the Freedman’s Bureau of Texas, registered Black and white voters throughout the state, and refused to recognize public officials who had previously worked on behalf of the Confederacy.

After Mullens’s appointment in 1867, voters elected him to the Constitutional Convention of 1868-69, where he filled the seat of a deceased member who previously represented McLennan, Falls, and Bell Counties. There, he served as a member of the Public Lands, Commerce, and Manufactures Committees. Following this election, General Joseph John Reynolds, who succeeded General Griffin, again selected Mullens as County Commissioner of McLennan County. Republican Party members and local voters saw Mullens as a promising, rising politician.

In 1869, Republicans appointed Mullens to Republican Party leader of McLennan County, and voters elected him to a seat in the Texas House of Representatives. He took the oath of office for the Twelfth Legislature on February 8, 1870. That legislature included the largest number of Black senators and representatives as well as the only Republican majority in the Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction eras. During his tenure, Mullens served on the Privileges and Elections Committee as well as the Federal Relations and Immigration Committees. He also advocated for integrated, state-funded public education. Additionally, he sought to establish the Texas State Police and a militia to subdue violence, often initiated by white Americans against Black Americans, throughout the state. In 1870, the New Era, an African American newspaper, praised his efforts and declared that “[there] is no more earnest worker in the Republican ranks, and no man in his district possesses the confidence of the people to a greater extent than does Mr. Mullens.”

Mullens also worked as a blacksmith in Waco. Local tax rolls convey that he owned $1,174 worth of property, including two lots in the city. County marriage records also report that Mullens married Sallie “Agnes” Downs, a formerly enslaved woman in Texas, on December 26, 1866. Together, they had a daughter named Mary, born prior on April 22, 1858.

On August 6, 1871, Mullens passed away unexpectedly at the age of forty-two. He was buried in Waco at First Street Cemetery, and his elected positions remained unfilled as Reconstruction fell apart in Texas and throughout the country. A result of the Compromise of 1877, Reconstruction ended with an informal agreement between Southern Democrats and the Republican Party. Republicans, seeking Democratic approval of the election of President Rutherford B. Hayes, agreed to remove federal troops stationed in previous Confederate states. Though roughly two thousand Black men held positions at the local, state, and federal levels throughout Reconstruction, those numbers dramatically declined following 1877.

After the Compromise, white Americans overthrew Reconstruction-era governments, disenfranchised Black voters, and removed Black men from public office. In some states, white leaders attempted to eliminate Black politicians’ names from the historical record. As a result, little information remains about many of these men, their time in office, or their lives in general.

In Texas, following Mullens’s passing in 1871, white leaders and voters removed all Black officials from office by 1883. Not until 1966, following the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the election of Barbara Jordan, would Texas be represented by another Black American. Though some documentation remains, many of their legacies remain sparse, including that of Mullens. His story, in some ways, lost—like the Reconstruction efforts of the late nineteenth century.

Note: Different documents contain varied spellings of Shep Mullens’s name. These include Shep, Shepherd, Sheppard, or Shepart, and Mullens or Mullins.

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Without the construction of Waco Hall, Baylor University might reside in Dallas, Texas. In the early 1900s, some Baylor representatives pushed for the university to relocate and had already placed parts of the institution in Dallas, including the newly established medical school. Resisting such a transition, Wacoans banded together to keep the university in the city. Under the auspices of the Waco-Baylor Campaign, community and university leaders introduced a plan titled “Greater Baylor University” in May 1928. Wacoans pledged to raise $350,000 in support of the university, with the agreement that no additional gifts would be required over the next three years. Texas Baptists committed to matching Waco’s donations. Local leaders believed these efforts to be favorable for both Waco and Baylor. Committing to an investment in the expansion of the university meant potential growth and flourishing in Waco.

Early on, city and university leaders decided that funds would support the construction of a new building on Baylor’s campus. Seeking to visually represent the connections between Waco and Baylor, leaders of the Waco-Baylor Campaign decided to name the new building Waco Hall. Embodying the relationship between the local community and the university, Waco Hall would serve as a performance and gathering space for Wacoans and Baylor students, faculty, and staff. Eager citizens quickly raised the recommended $350,000, and Wacoans, showing broad support for Waco Hall, went above the original amount, donating a total of $416,000 by June 1928.

Once the campaign met fundraising goals, trustees of Baylor University contemplated the building’s potential location. They decided on Seventh Street and Speight Avenue and completed plans for construction by March 13, 1929. Architects Lang and Mitchell of Dallas finalized structural decisions soon after, and on June 25, 1929, Baylor officials poured Atlas Portland Cement into the foundation. Soon after, O. K. Johnson Construction of Waco began to lay the foundation for the 200-by-200-foot building and finished the project in early 1930. On May twenty-seventh of that year, Baylor University held a dedication ceremony for the newly completed Waco Hall.

From the start of the project, city and Baylor leaders envisioned a structure that would serve as an auditorium for both the community and university. Though university leaders initially expected to only host graduation ceremonies in Waco Hall, the building expanded as a venue for Waco Symphony Orchestra concerts and as the location for Baylor’s School of Music and Department of Art.

At the time of its opening, Waco Hall’s 41,985 square feet contained nine classrooms, six offices, and an auditorium with a capacity of 2,400. The building also featured the Brooks Memorial Organ and a recital hall. Over time, Waco Hall expanded and experienced multiple renovation efforts. In 1957, university leaders added a west annex named Roxy Grove Hall in honor of the previous dean of the School of Music. The facility expanded and improved once more in 1965, when leaders constructed an east annex and installed new auditorium seats. In 1978, Baylor funded another renovation project, adding entry and exit ramps, first-floor restrooms, a custom lighting panel, and additional parking. The community and university funded the placement of acoustic panels in 1997, which debuted on October sixteenth at a Waco Symphony Orchestra concert.

Home to the Waco Symphony Orchestra since 1965, scores of other well-known artists and speakers have performed in front of local audiences at Waco Hall. Hollywood icons Katharine Hepburn, Dorothy Lamour, and Claude Rains graced the stage. Opera stars Marian Anderson and Waco’s own Jules Bledsoe dazzled audiences in 1939, and two years later, Bob Hope presented his comedic variety act to Waco audiences. In 1951, Billy Graham preached at Waco Hall, becoming an honorary Noze Brother during his campus visit. Prominent political figures also spoke in Waco Hall, including Presidents Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, and Lyndon B. Johnson, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, activist Ralph Nader, and Mark Felt, the notorious “Deep Throat” in the Watergate scandal. Renowned musical acts Bachman-Turner Overdrive, John Denver, Amy Grant, and Texas native Waylon Jennings performed there, too.

Waco Hall continues to host community-wide and university events. As at its beginning, the hall hosts University Chapel for students across Baylor’s campus. The auditorium also remains the location for important all-university events, such as Freshman Mass Meeting, Founders Day, All University Sing, Pigskin Revue, and other community and university pageants and ceremonies.

The stage, orchestra pit, and now 2,200-person auditorium in Waco Hall continue to provide a performance and gathering space for the community and university. More than just a building, Waco Hall exemplifies the relationship between Baylor University and the City of Waco—one that spans back before 1930 and continues into the present.

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Urban renewal programs swept across the United States in the mid-twentieth century. Funded by the federal government, cities throughout the country sought to improve local architecture and expand residential areas by purchasing and decimating pre-existing neighborhoods, a process often referred to as “slum clearance.” The City of Waco conducted the largest urban renewal program in the state of Texas. Intending to redesign and improve city infrastructure, local government officials formed the Waco Urban Renewal Agency. Launched in 1957, the first project was a partnership with Baylor University and focused on the renewal of land adjacent to the school’s campus. 

In the summer of 1958, Waco and Baylor declared the homes, businesses, churches, and other buildings near the Brazos River as “slums” in need of clearance. City planner E. H. Lovelace of Harland Bartholomew & Associates, an urban planning firm, affirmed Waco’s first project location as ideal for urban renewal. The city held a vote in June for the Baylor University Project, which received a resounding vote of approval—2,133 yeas to 293 nays. Notably, the City of Waco changed voting requirements on voting day, declaring only property owners as eligible voters. Seventy percent of residents in the area deemed a slum rented their homes.

After the election, Waco and Baylor planned to construct a park, residential housing, highways, and expand Baylor’s campus in the area. Most of the homes within the approved urban renewal area belonged to Black Wacoans. Residents appeared before the city council on October 13, 1958, to protest the confiscation of their homes. The expansion of Baylor University, which still refused Black students’ entry, remained central to their objections. Eighty property owners from the area signed a petition to maintain ownership of their homes.

Waco and Baylor ignored residential complaints and moved forward with urban renewal. In January 1959, they received federal approval of $67,474 for the 85-acre project. Once the Texas Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of federal aid for local urban renewal projects, Waco and Baylor established the official bounds of their first urban renewal project: the area confined by Fourth and First Streets and Jones and Leila Avenues. Waco’s urban renewal committee members—including real estate agent Hank L. Corwin, former mayor Truett Smith, Baylor Trustee Hilton E. Howell, and Baylor Executive Vice President Abner McCall—cheered federal and state approval, declaring the decision a victory for Waco and Baylor.

The city and university planned to remove 187 homes from the area, resulting in the relocation of 209 families and 50 individuals, the majority of whom were people of color. Residents and advocates for those within the bounds of Waco’s first urban renewal project gathered to protest once more on November 24, 1959.

Overflowing into the corridors, hundreds of urban renewal protestors blocked the entrance of city hall. Church members objected to the movement of their congregational spaces. Property owners resisted the seizure of their homes. Fred Finch, a prominent NAACP lawyer, objected to the area’s classification as a “slum” and noted that many residents would never be able to purchase another home. Resident after resident objected to their relocation. Waco Reverend J. L. Carter of 1621 South Third Street also rose to protest. If removed, he declared that he would not be able to buy another home or send his four daughters to college, especially since they could not attend segregated Baylor University. “In the event that this plan should pass and all the people are moved out, I believe you will cause a number of crimes,” Carter stated, “and I am a minister.”

Despite extraordinary opposition, Waco and Baylor began to relocate residents and knock down structures in January 1960. By 1963, the Waco Urban Renewal Agency had removed all residents from the Baylor University Project area and demolished all 272 structures within its bounds.

Waco and Baylor completed the Baylor University Project, or Baylor 1A, in July 1964, the first urban renewal project completed in the state of Texas, and soon completed another project, Riverside 1 Baylor. With federal funds, Waco purchased land from local residents, often at lower rates than market value, and sold the property to the private university. Baylor eventually bought 163 acres and constructed new classroom buildings, dormitories, and faculty housing. The university’s campus, which grew by fifty acres during this time, remains on urban renewal land today.

Several additional urban renewal projects ran in Waco throughout the mid- to late twentieth century. In 1960, they began the next initiative in Calle Dos near St. Francis Catholic Church and Sandtown. Over the next ten years, Waco purchased and renewed over 2,100 acres of land. By the late 1970s, Waco had completed ten urban renewal projects, more than any other city in Texas, permanently shifting the structure of the city and the residents within its bounds.

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The plans for F. L. Carroll Chapel and Library were announced in 1901, following substantial gifts to Baylor University from F. L. Carroll for the Chapel and Library and from G. W. Carroll for the Science Hall. While the Science Hall is separate from the Chapel and Library, the two buildings are linked in both style and historical significance. The cornerstones for both buildings were laid February 28, 1902, and their construction was a major landmark in Baylor history, lauded by the student newspaper as the moment when “Greater Baylor Begins.” Construction of F. L. Carroll Chapel and Library was completed in 1903. Period documentation describes the building’s original winding staircases, marble entryways, and seven marble pillars that supported a domed stained glass window. The building housed donated book collections. The dome on top of the building covered the chapel area which included an organ purchased by F. L. Carroll. In 1918, the collection of Dr. A. J. Armstrong’s Browning materials was donated to Baylor University and was housed in Carroll Chapel and Library.

On February 11, 1922 the F. L. Carroll Chapel and Library Building was damaged by a fire that destroyed much of the wooden interior. The Browning collection and many of the books were saved, as was the exterior of the building. Between 1922 and 1924 the building was reconstructed to house the University’s main library as well as several other smaller collections, including the Browning Collection, the Law School library, and the Texas Collection. The domed chapel was not reconstructed; in its place, a third floor was added. A basement was also added during this reconstruction. The quoin work from the original facade as well as some of the stone string course between the second and third floor are still intact. Throughout the years the building also housed the Strecker Museum, the J. B. Tidwell Bible Library, classrooms and offices for various academic departments, and temporary space for departments whose buildings were being remodeled.

After a 1992 hail storm damaged some of the windows, the University decided to remodel the building. The architectural work for the renovations was done by F&S Partners Incorporated from Dallas, Texas, and the contractor was Waco Construction, Incorporated. The landscape architect was J. Robert Anderson from Austin. In 1993 the renovations began, and in 1994 the building was once again fully functional, housing such entities as the Institute for Oral History, J. M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies, the University Historian, and the Texas Collection. The building was rededicated on February 26, 1994.

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Waco native Vivienne Lucille Malone-Mayes possessed a sharp mind with a resilient spirit to match. In an age where few women, let alone women of color, went on to become prominent figures in higher education, Malone-Mayes made her mark as an influential mathematician and inspiration to countless Baylor students.

Born in 1932, Malone-Mayes grew up with the harsh realities of racial prejudice. She first became aware of segregation as a preschooler when she mistakenly drank water from a whites-only fountain at the Montgomery Ward store on Fourth and Austin. Fearing for her daughter, Mrs. Malone pushed her to the appropriate fountain and then proceeded to teach the young girl how to distinguish the words white and black. As Malone-Mayes grew older, she learned that she could only frequent certain recreational spaces in Waco and that she would be denied service at larger retailers in Dallas such as Neiman-Marcus. However, Malone-Mayes did not let bigotry define her.

Raised by two educators, Malone-Mayes was encouraged to avidly pursue learning, and she excelled throughout elementary and secondary school. Malone-Mayes entered Fisk University at age sixteen after graduating from A. J. Moore High School in 1948. Malone-Mayes earned both her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree within the next six years, switching from the pursuit of medicine to mathematics after meeting the influential Evelyn Boyd Granville. Granville was the second African American woman to earn a PhD in mathematics, and she served as an inspiration for Malone-Mayes. It was also during this time that Vivienne married her husband, James Mayes.

Despite Malone-Mayes’ two degrees and eight years combined teaching experience at Paul Quinn College and Bishop College where she chaired the math departments, the still racially segregated Baylor University refused to admit Malone-Mayes in 1961 for further graduate courses in mathematics. Never one to be held back from achieving her goals, Malone-Mayes applied to the University of Texas and completed her doctoral studies there. Today, Vivienne Malone-Mayes is recognized as the fifth African American woman in the United States to earn a doctorate in the field of mathematics.

By the time of her graduation, Baylor desegregated and hired Malone-Mayes as a full-time professor, making her the first African American faculty member at the university. Malone-Mayes dedicated over twenty-five years of service to Baylor. Students loved her and voted her as “Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year” in 1971.

Beyond working as a Baylor professor, Malone-Mayes belonged to a number of other mathematical organizations, often holding important positions. She was the director of the Texas section of the High School Lecture Program, director-at-large for the Texas section of the Mathematical Association of America, and a member of the board of directors in the National Association of Mathematics. Malone-Mayes also had the distinction of being the first African American elected to the executive committee of the Association of Women in Mathematics.

Additionally, Malone-Mayes actively involved herself in the Waco community. She made New Hope Baptist Church her home and acted as the church’s choir director for a time. She also served on several boards of directors, including: Goodwill Industries, Family Counseling and Children Services, and the Heart of Texas Region Mental Health and Mental Retardation Center.

Malone-Mayes was a trailblazer for African American women in higher education and had a heart to serve her local community.

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The founding of St. Francis on the Brazos in 1924 marked the return of Franciscan missionaries to central Texas after a century’s absence. At the invitation of Rev. C.E. Byrne, the bishop of Galveston, Spanish Franciscan missionaries settled in Waco to serve the poor Mexican American community of the area. After their first wooden mission burned to the ground in 1928, the missionaries petitioned to have a stone structure built. The Galveston diocese funded the project and hired Roy E. Lane, a Waco architect, to design the church. Lane designed several other notable Waco buildings including the Hippodrome Theatre and the twenty-two-story Amicable building (later known as the ALICO building). The parish community held fundraisers for the building project and many members donated their services as laborers. The new building opened its doors to parishioners in 1931. 

 The exterior of the church is a near replica of the famous mission of San Jose de Aguayo in San Antonio. In fact, the ornamental stone façade depicting Saint Joseph on the exterior of the church is a facsimile of the one adorning San Jose de Aguayo. Yet some differences exist. The interior of the church is unique, styled in a modern adaption of Spanish Renaissance themes. This allows for the integration of multiple cultures in the interior art. The plaster interior of the church is stylized after Moorish and Spanish designs, and the altar is composed of Italian marble imported from Rome. Above the altar hangs a crucifix modeled after the miraculous Limpias crucifix at the Church of St. Peter in Santander, Spain. Perhaps the most unique element of the church is the enormous mural painted on the wall behind the altar depicting the history of Franciscan missionary efforts in Texas.

 In 1962, Rev. Mate Ramis, the priest of St. Francis on the Brazos, wrote to the Daughters of Mercy in Spain requesting that they expand their order to the United States. He hoped that the sisters would aid the Hispanic community in Waco by providing religious education classes. The Daughters of Mercy was founded in 1856 as a religious order of women dedicated to serving small, poverty-stricken villages in Spain. Four Spanish sisters responded to the call, though three of them had yet to take their final vows. After arriving in Waco and completing their vows, the sisters offered kindergarten classes on weekdays and religious instruction on Sunday afternoons. In 1987, two of the nuns left Waco to serve a parish in Austin. The remaining sisters taught 140 children and almost 400 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (religious education) students. When new amnesty laws passed in Texas, the sisters worked with officials to legalize 300 Hispanic families in the area.

 Throughout its long history, St. Francis on the Brazos Catholic Church served as a spiritual and cultural anchor for Waco’s Hispanic community. The church tied the surrounding neighborhood and businesses together, offering a place of respite for residents. Many parishioners were immigrants struggling to make a new home in America, and in addition to providing a comfortable worship environment, the church offered ties to Hispanic culture. The church also provided English language and citizenship classes to help immigrants acclimate to their new home. In the 1960s, urban renewal demolished the homes and businesses in the surrounding area, changing the face of the community drastically. Despite the passage of time, St. Francis remains a mainstay of the Hispanic community in Waco.

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On May 31, 1851, four charter members established the First Baptist Church of Waco. These members reached out to prominent missionary and Texan Rev. Noah T. Byers, offering him a salary of seventy-five dollars per year to pastor the church. The church initially was composed of only fifteen members and met in the meeting place of the First Methodist Church until obtaining a brick building of their own at Fourth Street and Mary Avenue in 1857. The construction of this first building was a community effort. Church member B. D. Arnold provided the brick from his own brick-laying company, and committees within the congregation ensured that the church’s basic needs such as lamps and pews were fulfilled. When completed, the church was one of the most impressive structures in Waco at that time.

A fire demolished the brick structure in 1877, and construction on a new church began almost immediately. Though the building efforts were not completed until 1883, the base floor was finished by 1880 and in use by the congregation for worship. At this time the church entered a period of innovative change under the leadership of B. H. Carroll. For the first time, women were allowed to serve as deacons in the church and worshippers implemented the use of musical instruments in their services. Carroll was known throughout the Baptist community for his profound theological knowledge and fierce leadership style. In 1870, the congregation appointed him pastor after he gained recognition in the local community for a revival hosted at New Hope Baptist Church earlier that year. He regarded his position as pastor as a commitment to be deeply honored and missed only one Sunday service throughout his time as pastor at First Baptist Church. In 1883, the First Baptist Church of Waco was invited to attend the Southern Baptist Convention in Richmond, Virginia, for the first time. Carroll served as pastor at First Baptist until 1899, when he was called to serve as a secretary for the Texas Baptist Education Commission.

In 1915, First Baptist Church’s longest-serving pastor, Dr. Joseph Martin Dawson, began his tenure. Dawson primarily focused upon social issues, as well as the church’s budget. During construction of the new church in the late nineteenth century, the church had incurred a significant amount of debt. Dawson worked to eradicate this, focusing on the budget even during the Depression, sacrificing his own salary in order to save the church money. During the Southern Baptist Convention’s 75 Million Dollar Campaign from 1914 to 1924, the First Baptist Church was assigned to raise $200,000, the largest portion given to any church. Dawson often preached about social justice issues such as racial and gender prejudice, as well as about the separation of church and state. In addition to his position as pastor of First Baptist, Dawson held many other leadership positions in the Baptist community. For instance, he served as the president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas in 1922, the chairman of the Southern Baptist Committee on World Peace in 1945, and the chairman of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1945 to 1946.

First Baptist Church of Waco was highly involved with the establishment of quality education in Waco. It has been credited with the establishment of the Waco Classical School, which later became Waco University. This school was the first coeducational university in the South, and the second in the United States after a department for girls was added in 1866. In 1886, Waco University merged with Baylor University. First Baptist Church also aided in the creation of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth and the George W. Truett Seminary located at Baylor University. The church also contributed to the founding of the Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center in 1919.

Today, First Baptist Church continues to serve the Waco community through its dedication to worship, social justice, and commitment to higher education. Baylor University and First Baptist Church have retained a strong relationship since 1886 through Baylor’s many students, administration, and staff who worship at the church. The church continues its legacy of supporting the Waco community through ministries which aid groups such as Waco’s schoolchildren, disabled, and low-income families.

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In 1875, Professor Alexander James Moore of Paul Quinn College, concerned at the lack of quality education for African American children in Waco, began teaching small groups of young children out of his home. Though Reconstruction Legislature of 1870 eliminated segregation in schools throughout Texas, these laws were appealed by 1873, and most cities like Waco were left without provisions for African American education. Over time, Moore’s classes grew larger and larger, and it became clear that the school, now called the First District Negro School, needed to find some sort of official facility. In 1881, the classes moved to a small four-room frame building which had originally been a hospital at the corner of Clay Avenue and River Street. These classes became known as the Second District Negro School. In addition to being the first teacher, A. J. Moore served as the school’s first principal from 1881 to 1905. The inaugural graduating class in 1886 contained only five students. In the school’s almost one-hundred years of serving Waco’s children, more than 4,000 students graduated, many continuing on to successful careers.

School officials chose a new location for the school after the main building burned down in 1921. They completed construction on a brick building at 600 South First Street in 1923. This schoolhouse contained 35 classrooms, allowing the school to expand its education of Waco youth. At this time the school obtained the name A. J. Moore High, becoming the only school in the Waco system named for a person. The Waco Tribune-Herald noted that the community chose the name intentionally to honor the selfless legacy of Professor A. J. Moore.

From 1923 to 1952, the school housed kindergarten students through the twelfth grade. From 1952 until the school’s closure in 1971, it provided education for students in the seventh through twelfth grades only. The A. J. Moore High School Handbook, published in 1951, exhorts its students to take responsibility for their own futures, as well as for that of their community. It declares the school’s hopes to offer students a well-rounded education, providing them not only with knowledge, but also the means for achieving success in all areas of life. The handbook calls students to remain loyal to the principles of democracy, encouraging respect for the rights of all citizens.

Space increasingly became an issue as the school continued to grow. Discussions concerning the school’s dilemma noted in particular the poor location of the school, considering the noise coming from the train which ran through the school yard. The overcrowded classrooms only added to the school’s plight. Ultimately, the school closed in 1971, as a result of desegregation and urban renewal projects in Waco.

In 1997, A. J. Moore Academy was reborn in Waco as a magnet school. Proponents of this school hoped to carry on the traditions begun by Professor Moore in the nineteenth century, encouraging students to remain united. The charter school emphasized areas such as business, engineering, entrepreneurship, and technology in order to help students succeed in secondary education and the workplace. In order to combat budget shortfalls, the school board elected to consolidate A. J. Moore Academy with University High in 2012.

A. J. Moore High School was the first and arguably most successful effort for the provision of systematic and quality education for children of all races in Waco. Until Moore took it upon himself to begin teaching young children, Waco did not have any schools dedicated to the education of African American children. Today, the school remains an important hallmark of the Waco community, providing quality education for students of all races.  

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After the Amicable Life Insurance Company opened for business on April 2, 1910, the owners began searching for a location to house their new business. The owners of First National Bank, located at Fifth Street and Austin Avenue, also served as members of the board of trustees for the Amicable Life Insurance Company (ALICO). The bank owners decided to sell their lot to ALICO, and in 1910, the insurance company demolished the old bank to break ground for the new building.

Construction began in August of 1910 on what was originally planned to be an eight-story building. Yet when the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas planned a taller building, ALICO increased the number of floors to seventeen. The hotel also increased its planned height, and ALICO ultimately decided to construct a twenty-two-story building. Construction finished exactly one year later in August of 1911. The Amicable building stood out from other buildings in the South in many ways. Though most buildings at this time were composed of concrete or masonry, the Amicable building boasted a steel frame. Also, the elevator system within was quite advanced for the time. In addition to these modern innovations, the ALICO building stood as the tallest building west of the Mississippi River and south of the Mason-Dixon line until 1929.

The building itself stands for the strength and stability of the Waco community and of downtown. While many businesses have come and gone throughout the history of downtown Waco, the ALICO building has stood strong since its creation in 1910. It weathered everything in Waco, from the Waco tornado of 1953 to urban renewal. The architects, Sanguinet and Staats of Fort Worth and Roy E. Lane of Waco, wanted to design a building that could survive any major catastrophe. They designed the building with a steel frame that could resist a hurricane-force wind. The bottom half of the outer façade was composed of granite and other stone, while the top was made of brick and terra cotta. It was designed to be sturdy but to have a look that was classic and appealing to the eye.

The first few floors of the building housed the First National Bank. The fourth floor through the twentieth all contained the same floor plan for office spaces, while floors above the twentieth consisted mostly of storage space. The Amicable building became the center of downtown, making its office space highly desirable and the shopping center immensely popular. People came to the Amicable building not only to shop but often just to marvel at the building itself. Until the mid-1940s, the ALICO building was bustling and full of offices that were not necessarily ALICO offices. For instance, radio station WACO was founded on the eighth floor of the building. This changed when the Amicable Life Insurance Company rapidly grew and needed to start buying back some of the offices because of their growing need for space.

The ALICO building has not only served as office space, however. The tower became Waco's crisis center following the 1953 tornado that struck the surrounding downtown area and claimed 114 lives. The building suffered only superficial damage and, having been built with its own generator, was the only major downtown structure with electricity. Medical and military officials coordinated search parties and rescue efforts from the First National Bank on the ground floor.

In 1982, the Texas State Historical Commission designated the ALICO building a historical landmark. The state uses this program to commemorate and preserve sites that have impacted state history. The first of its kind in the Southwest, the ALICO building became the focal point of activity in Waco for generations. Today, the ALICO building still towers above the Waco skyline, holding the offices of the now American-Amicable Life Insurance Company of Texas, as well as providing office space for other businesses located in downtown Waco.

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In the years leading up to 1870, the Brazos River proved to be both a blessing and a curse to the city of Waco. During that time, no bridges spanned the eight hundred miles of river flowing through Central Texas, forcing cattle drivers moving up the Chisholm Trail to find shallow fording areas. Waco's shallow banks provided one of these opportune locations, and the Chisholm Trail brought a great deal of trade to the small city. Yet the river also posed a serious transportation issue for merchants and travelers. Although Waco pioneer Shapely Prince Ross ran a ferry for those wishing to cross, the river became impassable for days or even weeks during flood season. It became clear that a better means of crossing the river was necessary, both for locals and those passing through. The close of the Civil War, however, left the city of Waco and McLennan County without funds for such a project. Plans to build a bridge across the Brazos initiated in 1866, when the Texas State Legislature granted a charter for the foundation of a private company, the Waco Bridge Company. The charter provided the Waco Bridge Company a monopoly on transportation across the river for the next twenty-five years, allowing no other bridges to be built within five miles of their bridge. A budget of twenty-five thousand dollars was set for the construction of the bridge, and after much deliberation, the shareholders chose the steel cable suspension bridge design due to its cheapness and ease of transport. 

John T. Flint, president of the Waco Bridge Company, hired Thomas M. Griffith, a civil engineer from New York, for the project. Griffith was an accomplished enginner who, early in his career in 1854, built the first bridge spanning the Mississippi River in frontier Minnesota. Griffith arrived in Waco in October 1868 to begin preliminary plans for the bridge. The Roebling Company of Trenton, NJ, was commissioned to provide cables and bridgework. This is the same firm that would later provide materials for the Brooklyn Bridge. After the parts arrived in Waco by oxcart, local labor began to assemble the suspension bridge. The bridge was officially completed and opened to through traffic in 1870. At the time, it was the longest suspension bridge west of the Mississippi River.

The economic benefits of the bridge immediately became visible to the city and surrounding area. In the following decades, Waco became the capital for cotton and cattle in Central Texas, rivaling Dallas in size by the 1900s. Built just at the edge of the business section of the city at First Street and Main Street, the Suspension Bridge stimulated the growth of Waco by providing a steady stream of traffic through the city. The bridge itself also supplied economic revenue. The 1866 charter allowed the Waco Bridge Company to charge a toll as long as the company properly maintained the bridge. The bridge collected enough in tolls in the first year of operation to completely pay off its mortgage. The toll quickly became unpopular, and many began searching for ways to circumvent it. Ultimately, McLennan County bought the Suspension Bridge from the Waco Bridge Company for a sum of $75,000. It was then sold to the city of Waco for one dollar, with the provision that the city would maintain the bridge and eliminate the toll. Many citizens called for the “unsightly bridge” to be removed in 1913. Rather than tear down the historic bridge, the city re-floored it, stuccoed over the red bricks, and replaced its wooden trusses with steel. Over the next century, the bridge underwent renovations several more times and continued to serve vehicular traffic until 1971. By that time, other options for crossing the Brazos River existed, such as the Washington Avenue Bridge and the Herring Avenue Bridge.  Today, the bridge serves only pedestrian traffic. It is the centerpiece of Indian Springs Park on the river, and stands as a reminder of Waco’s rich history.

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During World War II, Waco provided a place of refuge and hope of starting anew for many seeking refuge from persecution, such as Otto and Hilde Levy. As tensions escalated throughout Germany as a result of Nazi discrimination, Otto Levy and Hilde Rosenfeld were married in May of 1937 in Mannheim. Their wedding was held in a large dance hall, though few of their friends and family attended out of fear of attracting unwanted attention from the Nazis. In the months following their marriage, the Levys watched as “Jews Not Wanted” signs appeared in storefronts and as friends and neighbors began to disappear. The Levys decided to flee their home in Germany at the end of 1937 to seek refuge in the United States.

Strict immigration laws passed under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration made it difficult for European Jews to secure visas for passage to the United States during the 1930s. The Levys attempted several times to obtain a visa from relatives and friends who had already fled Europe but were initially unsuccessful. Just as they began to despair, the Levys’ friend Gretel Weiser offered to contact her great-uncle Fred Mailander in America on their behalf. He agreed to help the Levys and wrote a letter to the American consul in Germany in order to obtain visas for the couple.

The Levys were excited about the prospect of moving to an urban city such as Waco with a university and a population of 55,000. They hoped to begin a glove-making business similar to the one Otto worked in while in Germany. In addition to securing their visas, Mr. Mailander provided the Levys with a house and covered the cost of moving their furniture. Yet the Levys encountered more obstacles as they began their journey to the United States in 1937. The American consul initially denied Hilde’s passage on the basis of health issues but in the end made an exception for the young couple. The Nazi Party prevented the Levys from withdrawing money from their bank accounts, leaving them with eighteen dollars each for the entire trip. The Levys arrived in New York unable to pay their train fare to Waco. After receiving aid from the United Jewish Appeal Help Committee, the Levys finally reached Waco in August of 1938.

The Levys received a warm welcome in Waco from Mr. Mailander and several other Jewish members of the community, but they encountered difficulties in the beginning of their new lives. Hitler called back many of the boats from Germany, including the one with the Levy’s furniture. Their furniture and belongings did not arrive in Waco until October. On top of this, Hilde and Otto spoke only German, making communication difficult. Unable to start a glove business in Waco, Otto began working at Rainbo Bread, and Hilde worked at a women’s department store in order to make enough money to get by.

A few years later, several prominent Jewish women approached Hilde and encouraged her to take over a store on South Eleventh Street in the Bell’s Hill neighborhood and run a small grocery. In 1941, Hilde borrowed $54.50 from Cooper’s Wholesale Grocery and began selling everyday items such as coffee, canned goods, and kosher meats. At the recommendation of two of the first customers, the Levys named the store O&H Foods. The Levys began introducing foods and products that could not be found anywhere else in Waco after traveling to a fancy food convention in Chicago in 1946. Specialty items such as cheeses from Finland, chocolates from Holland, and imported beers from around the world became the staple of O&H Foods. After a devastating tornado tore through Waco in 1953, damaging the storefront beyond repair, the Levys reopened on North Twenty-Fifth Street, changing the name to O&H Rare Foods. 

Otto and Hilde believed that a strong work ethic and good personal relationships with their customers would set them apart from other businesses in Waco. In the early years, the store was open seven days a week, often from seven in the morning until eleven at night. Otto and Hilde knew all of their customers by name and remembered their exact sandwich orders. They treated their employees as family members, and their decision to retire in 1990 was very difficult. Although they could no longer run the store because of Otto’s health, the Levys were comforted knowing that the store was in the hands of long-time employee John Peters.

O&H Rare Foods officially closed on July 31, 1998, after nearly half a century of providing Texans with specialty grocery items. By the end of World War II, nearly 40 percent of O&H’s customers were located outside of Waco in areas such as Austin, El Paso, and Odessa. O&H Rare Foods offered glimpses of culture outside the United States for citizens who never left their small towns, while the Levys’ tireless dedication to customer service and innovation in the food industry made O&H Rare Foods a center of community for Wacoans.

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