In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the rise of railroads and industrialization caused significant changes in the business world. The growth of corporations and big businesses led to a greater need for accountants, bookkeepers, corporate bankers, and other financial and administrative professionals. In response to this new demand, business schools teaching the skills necessary to fill these positions began to pop up across the states. Among these was a Waco institution known as Toby’s Practical Business College (or simply Toby’s Business College). Founded in 1890 by Edward Toby, the school made a name for itself as a producer of competent businessmen and upstanding citizens.

Edward Toby was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1858. When he was eighteen, he earned his degree in engineering in Virginia and entered the workforce. After spending time in New York City and New Orleans, Toby moved to Waco in 1883. After trying his hand as a salesman, grocer, clerk, and even cowboy, Toby settled into a job with Provident National Bank. In his position as head bookkeeper, he displayed remarkable professionalism and capability. In 1890, at the urging of his coworkers, he began to teach the business skills he had learned to others. For three years, he taught a few night classes a week while working at the bank during the day. Eventually, the high demand for his classes led him to quit his job at the bank and begin teaching full time.

Toby initially held classes in his home on Fifth Street. His popularity continued to grow, and in 1896 Toby’s Business College had enough students to field a football team. During the summer, he offered business classes in New York City. In 1898, the college outgrew its small room in Toby’s house, and he moved it to a rented office space on South Fourth Street. A year later, the school received its charter with a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars. In 1910, he built a new four-story building on the corner of Fourth Street and Webster Avenue. The college grew to be one of the biggest business schools in the country with about 600-700 enrolled students a year.

In the numerous advertisements he purchased in newspapers and city directories, Toby marketed his school as the best education money could buy. There were several things Toby believed made his school the very best. One was his own impressive qualifications as a Certified Court Accountant, a Fellow of the Central Association of Accountants of the World, and a renowned handwriting expert. Another was his unique, hands-on approach to education. He refused to use traditional textbooks and instead wrote his own lessons, emphasizing practical experience. Another defining quality of the college was its high standards for admittance. Toby would not admit smokers, drinkers, sloppy dressers, troublemakers, or anyone who did not have at least an eighth-grade education.

The school had six departments: academics, bookkeeping, banking, shorthand, telegraphy and office appliance, and typewriting. Adjacent to the business college was Toby’s School of Correspondence. On Fridays, Toby would host symposiums where prominent businessmen or legislators would come and speak to the student body on matters such as banking, railroads, mining, or aviation, after which the students would hold a debate. The classes at the business school garnered such respect that Baylor University President Samuel Palmer Brooks often encouraged his students to take additional classes with Toby.

The school prospered until the Great Depression. The cause of its financial hardship was most likely a sharp decline in enrollment leading to a lack of profits. The school was unable to recover and closed its doors in the 1940s. Ed Toby died in 1937 at the age of 79.

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Crawford, Texas, is home to the beautiful Tonkawa Falls, drawing visitors and locals alike for recreational activities and fun each year. The falls are named after the Tonkawa Indians who inhabited the area for centuries before the arrival of white settlers to Central Texas. The Tonkawa left behind a great deal of evidence of their existence and way of life, and much of it can still be viewed today at Tonkawa Park, for those who know where to look.

The Tonkawa Indians, a semi-nomadic group of hunters as well as growers, relied on wild game such as buffalo and deer as well as beans, squash, and other vegetables for their daily diet. They interacted often, though only sometimes peacefully, with other Indian groups from the area, such as the Waco and Tawakoni Indians. They were also known to be sworn enemies of the Comanche. When the Spanish arrived in Texas, they set up missions in order to control and civilize the Indians. The Tonkawa, who first encountered the Spanish around the year 1690, refused to stay in these missions, frustrating the Spanish. Negative rumors began to circulate about the Tonkawa, including stories of cannibalistic rituals.

In 1855, as more and more white settlers moved into Central Texas, the Tonkawa found themselves forced from their homes and onto a reservation along with the other Indian groups of the area. The Tonkawa, whose numbers were significantly depleted by enemy attacks and disease, again endured forced relocation in 1884, this time to Oklahoma, where descendants of the Tonkawa people still live today.

During the Great Depression, the Texas Civil Works Administration funded the construction of Tonkawa Park, in an attempt to create jobs for locals. (The Civil Works Administration was a forerunner of the Works Progress Administration.) Crawford, given the choice of a city park or a city sewage system, chose the park. The close proximity of the beautiful Tonkawa Falls made their choice an easy one. The men set to work building a clubhouse and caretaker’s house, as well as stone picnic tables and barbecue pits. They cleared brush and carved out stone steps leading down to the water. All of these structures were built using stone which the workers harvested from along the creek. The workers built a concrete driveway which stretched over the falls. Locals referred to this spot as “The Dip,” and it became notorious as a lovers' lane for young people.

During construction, workers found a burial site and various remains, believed by many to be Tonkawa graves. During the summer, workers also discovered petroglyphs etched into the creek bed, visible due to the low water levels. There is evidence of both Indian and Spanish influence in the etchings, which makes the Tonkawa, who interacted with the Spanish, the most likely creators of these drawings. During the arid months of the summer, when Tonk Creek begins to dry up, many of these petroglyphs are visible.

Over the years, the park became a significant part of the Crawford community and a gathering place for its citizens. In the early 1940s, the Waco Camp Fire Girls used this location for their summer camps. They built cabins and a shower house on the site, with the help of several men who had helped construct the camp originally. At one point, a rodeo arena was created in the park, as well as a football field for Crawford High School, a Saddle Club, and an RV park. A seafood restaurant opened for operation in the clubhouse in the 1980s. In more recent years, Crawford constructed a community center in the park.

Today if you visit the site, you may see campers at the RV park, picnickers sitting on the old stone picnic tables, and children and adults jumping from the falls into the swimming hole below. But if you look more closely, you will see the rich history which has been literally etched and built into the park.

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In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Farmers’ Improvement Society (FIS) worked to help poor farmers escape the cycle of debt caused by the share cropping and credit system which developed in the wake of the Civil War. Although the abolition of slavery represented a great step forward after the Civil War, life for many African Americans did not immediately improve. After emancipation, a large portion of freedmen and freedwomen remained at the plantations they had lived on for years, taking on new roles as tenant farmers or sharecroppers. These forms of work became, in many ways, a new form of slavery. Both sharecropping and tenant farming involved a landowner renting a portion of their land to a farmer. Each year, the landowner claimed a portion of the farmer’s crop as rent. The farmer had to purchase tools, seeds, and other provisions, either from the landlord at the cost of a high share of the crop, or from a merchant on credit. The harvested crop would then be given to the landlord for rent and to the merchant to settle any outstanding debt. Problems often arose when the farmer had a bad harvest. The landlord charged the same portion each year, regardless of the amount brought in during the harvest. This often left farmers without enough crop to pay merchants back. This system created a cycle of debt and made it nearly impossible for people to leave sharecropping or tenant farming because they were never able to make enough money to go elsewhere. Robert Lloyd Smith, who married Ruby Cobb and was a part of the great Waco Smith-Cobb family, was living in Oakland, Texas, when he decided to combat the exploitation of black farmers through this unjust agricultural system. Smith witnessed first-hand the suffering of African Americans trapped in institutionalized poverty in Oakland, and in 1889, he created the Village Improvement Society (VIS) as a solution. The VIS focused upon helping black people improve the aesthetics of the areas of town in which they lived. In 1891, Smith restructured the VIS into the Farmers’ Improvement Society in order to focus on bettering farmers’ lives and ending the cycle of poverty. FIS set out to put a stop to sharecropping and tenant farming by encouraging farm ownership and the use of cash purchases instead of credit buying. The organization also provided health benefits to members, held agricultural fairs to demonstrate techniques, and even opened an agricultural college in Wolfe City, Texas, in 1906. The society became very popular among African American farmers, and by 1909, had grown to about 21,000 members across Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas. In 1912, the society’s members owned 75,000 acres of land valued at over $1 million. In 1908, FIS opened the Farmer’s Improvement Bank in Waco in order to solve the issue of farmers needing tools and provisions before being paid once a year at harvest. The Farmers’ Improvement Bank—located at 109 Bridge Street—provided farmers with low-interest alternatives to outside banks’ steep rates. Smith encouraged society members to hold their savings at the bank, and the local FIS offices were located above it. The bank continued to operate until the Great Depression lowered cotton prices drastically, resulting in most depositors withdrawing their money. The bank ultimately failed in September of 1930. Despite the popularity of the organization among black farmers, the Great Depression took a heavy toll upon FIS, and it weakened as more farmers left for major cities to find jobs. Throughout the 1930s, the society lost much of its membership and had to take out loans to pay benefits owed to remaining members. R. L. Smith and his wife Ruby Cobb worked to keep the association afloat, but Smith’s death in 1942 spelled the end of the society. After nearly half a century of working to elevate the status of African Americans in Texas, the Farmers’ Improvement Society ceased operations.

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The roots of Bellmead grew out of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company (M-K-T). In June of 1910, M-K-T purchased 90 percent of the Texas Central Railway, a line of tracks running 268 miles from Waco to Rotan. Because of Waco’s central location along the line, M-K-T built a massive locomotive complex called a roundhouse in a rural area near the city. The region received its name in 1911 when M-K-T President Charles Schaff, on an inspection tour of the new facility, noted to a Katy railroad attorney that the area around the roundhouse reminded him of the farm where he grew up in Belle Meade, Tennessee. The area around the roundhouse soon thereafter adopted the name Bellmead.

In 1913, surveyors laid out “Bellmead Court” in lots and blocks. The land did not catch the interest of many buyers since it was prone to frequent flooding. Eventually, the company divided the Ashleman Farm—which lay adjacent to the M-K-T property—into lots that sold for thirty-five dollars each to families working for the railroad and to those wishing to provide goods and services to those families. Over time, more people moved to the area and businesses followed.

The 1928-29 Polk City Directory was the first to list Bellmead streets and businesses, showing a merchant’s store, two-story rooming house, garage, a barber shop, gas station, a grocery store, and the Bellmead Baptist Church. The state highway department brought a vital transportation link to the area in 1932 through the construction of State Highway 84. In 1939, residents voted to incorporate as a city, but the movement failed because the area lacked independent sewage, water, and fire services.

During the Great Depression, men laid off from the M-K-T railroad found work with the Works Progress Administration. They built water and sewer lines to serve the area, freeing it from its reliance upon Waco for such services. Around that same time, a volunteer fire department was established and the fire station became a center of civic activity.

Before World War II, Bellmead’s economy depended heavily upon the M-K-T railroad shops. However, the war brought about the need for new and different services and industries, reviving Bellmead’s economy. General Tire & Rubber Company arrived to produce military truck tires, Waco Army Airfield (later called James Connally Air Force Base) was established, and the M-K-T Railway received a boost as one of the chief transporters of crude oil from Texas to the rest of the nation. Activity centered upon the war effort resulted in a rapid increase in the population. In the early 1940s the population was approximately 25, but by 1949 it had increased to 800.

In 1951, Bellmead citizen Chuck Lovelace learned from a Waco city councilman that the city planned to annex the Bellmead area in 1952. After discussing the issue with other citizens, Lovelace convinced the county commissioners to hold an incorporation election, allowing the citizens of the area to determine whether they wanted to be a separate city. The December 19, 1952, election was very close, but ultimately Bellmead voted to approve incorporation. A group of local residents drafted the initial charter and the first city council meeting was held on November 12, 1953.

Bellmead continued to grow rapidly toward the twenty-first century. Although Connally Air Force Base closed in 1965, Texas A&M purchased the site and established James Connally Technical Institute, now known as Texas State Technical College. Today, the city is home to nearly ten thousand residents and remains an integral part of McLennan County.

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As Americans took to the road in an age of expanded highway systems and ease of travel, the Alamo Plaza Courts Hotel pioneered the field of luxury motels. From a small but luxurious beginning in Waco, the company grew into a nationwide chain known for its safety, comfort, and distinct style in the mid-twentieth century.

Alamo Plaza founder Edgar Lee Torrence, born in 1893 and raised in McLennan County, grew up in Waco at a time when the city’s business culture began to develop. Architecture, such as the Amicable and Praetorian buildings, and the wealth of higher-education opportunities, found at institutions like Baylor University, Paul Quinn College, and Texas Christian University, reflected this changing atmosphere. The climate agreed with Torrence, who received a degree from Toby’s Business College after high school. After working as a bookkeeper, the young entrepreneur set out upon his own, opening a used car business just as the automobile industry began to take off throughout the nation around 1918.

The expanding US highway system in the 1920s struck Torrence as a unique opportunity. Though tourist cabins – typically known for convenience as opposed to comfort and cleanliness – dotted the highways, few respectable options existed for economical travelers. Torrence sought to fill this gap through a partnership with Waco Judge D. W. Bartlett. Altering their original plans to build an apartment, the pair laid plans for the construction of a luxury motel in the bustling city.

The Alamo Plaza Tourist Apartments—later renamed the Alamo Plaza Courts Hotel—opened on the 900 block of Elm Avenue in 1929 with a façade mirrored after a striking symbol used throughout the state to garner Texas pride. An open house featured the American Legion Drum and Bugle Corps, and local newspapers touted the complex as “Waco’s finest tourist apartments” offering travelers every modern comfort. This would come to be the model upon which Torrence operated the Alamo Plaza business.

Adamant that Alamo Plaza remain distinct in every way, Torrence avoided the U-shape design prevalent among tourist cabins at that time. In an interview in 1953, he dismissed that model as “fit only for a barn,” instead utilizing the façade of the Alamo in San Antonio to frame the front and rear entrances to the motel, connected by a single story of tourist apartments on each side.

Despite the onset of the Great Depression shortly after construction, Alamo Plaza saw success in Waco, prompting Torrence to open a second location in Tyler, Texas, in 1931. He continued to expand the business into one of the first national motel chains, placing Alamo Plazas in multiple southern states. He sometimes partnered with family members or friends to open new locations. At other times, enterprising businessmen copied his luxury motel model and utilized the complex name, often without his permission.

As early as 1931, newspaper advertisements described Alamo Plaza motels as among the nation’s finest. The basis for similar motels in over twenty cities throughout the nation, the Alamo Plaza Courts Hotel in Waco became known for safe, comfortable, and innovative accommodations. In 1936, Alamo Plaza motels became some of the first in the nation to place telephones in individual rooms. Just over a decade later, the chain once again became a pioneer in the field, placing a television set in each room.

Though Waco’s Alamo Plaza Courts Hotel closed in the mid-1950s, the model the business established continued on throughout the nation for many years.

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For over a century, Baylor University has served as one of the various educational institutions contributing to Waco’s reputation as the “Athens on the Brazos.” Constructed to house the university’s administration, Pat Neff Hall came to serve as a symbol of the university’s legacy and tradition.

Despite the economic uncertainty of the 1930s, enrollment at the nearly century-old Baylor University rapidly continued to increase. The large influx of students under the presidency of former Texas Governor Pat Neff led to overcrowded classrooms and dwindling faculty space. Thus, when the General Education Board, a New York-based philanthropic organization dedicated to supporting higher-education institutions, offered $50,000 for the construction of an administration building to free up classroom space, the university seized the opportunity.

On December 7, 1938, the university held a Masonic cornerstone-laying ceremony to mark the beginning of construction on the new building. The architectural firm Birch D. Easterwood and Son designed a 46,000-square-foot American Georgian-style structure, which cost around $250,000 to complete. Workers finished construction on the building in 1939, although it was not dedicated until February 1, 1940, on Founder’s Day, the day on which the university celebrates its founders and commemorates the anniversary of its charter.

Named for the president who saw the university through a difficult economy which threatened to close the school, the hall features inscriptions on all sides favored by Pat Neff. The east and west halls bear two quotes from scripture, including the passage form Proverbs advising that “wisdom is better than rubies.” A line under the eaves just above the third floor notes “the youth of a nation are the trustees of posterity,” a quote from Benjamin Disraeli that Neff once used a chapel speech. As noted by retired Baylor professor Robert Reid, the building came to reflect not only Neff’s tremendous passion for the importance of education, but also the hope of the founders of the university to establish a center of learning for “all ages to come.”

One of the building’s most distinctive features today is its gold roof which can be seen from various points throughout the city. Yet the roof was originally stainless steel, and remained so for many years. At the time of its construction, it was only the second stainless steel roof in the entire nation. The university added gold leafing in 2000.

Within the tower lies another famous aspect of Pat Neff Hall: the carillon. In December of 1939, the set of twenty-five chimes donated by trustee Thomas Cullen rang out across campus for the first time with the hymn “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow.” The bells inevitably wore out and in 1988 were replaced by the current forty-eight-bell carillon donated by Regent Emeritus Drayton McLane. The new bells were constructed in France and, after a shipping mishap which sent them to Mexico was remedied, were dedicated on November 4, 1988.

In addition to fulfilling its main function of housing the office of the president and other administrative officials, Pat Neff Hall has come to serve as a center of Baylor tradition. The practice of lighting the hall up with green lights following an athletic win began in 1978 and continues today. Perhaps the most widely recognized use of the hall is its prominent placement on the university institutional mark. Used for all official communication purposes, the symbol featuring Pat Neff Hall serves as a testament to the university’s legacy, tradition, and commitment to education.

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Waco’s rapid development established it as one of the most significant urban centers of the South by the late nineteenth century. Home to one of the longest-spanning suspension bridges in the country, the once small frontier town owed a great portion of its success to the cotton industry. The strong agricultural tradition established by Stephen F. Austin and Waco’s earliest settlers in the mid-nineteenth century flourished into an international trade system. Farmers grew, ginned, and shipped this “white gold” not only throughout Texas, but also to Europe, South America, and India. Waco reigned in the South as the “King of Cotton” until the onset of the Great Depression.

By 1900, cottonseed was second only to lumber as the most important cash crop in Texas. Mills sprang up all over the state as Texas established itself as the leading processor of cottonseed in the nation, and one of the largest suppliers of cooking oil, vegetable shortening, margarine, and salad oil—byproducts of cottonseed oil.

On January 29, 1910, J. T. Davis established Brazos Valley Cotton Oil, Inc., in Waco. The main operations of the company took place at a mill located on the block between Webster Avenue and Jackson Avenue in the heart of Waco’s business district.

From its onset, the locally owned mill contributed enormously to the economic wealth of the city by purchasing thousands of tons of cottonseed annually from farmers, and employing up to seventy-five men. The railway ran adjacent to the mill, bringing in shipments of cotton from local gins in order to be processed. Workers then extracted oil from the cottonseed to be used for both culinary and industrial purposes. After the mill’s completely modernized machinery processed the seed, the oil was shipped all over the world. In order to prevent unnecessary waste, the mill sold unused meal as cattle feed.

Davis grew the company quickly, and by 1924 had already acquired a second company, the Valley Mills Cotton Oil Company. Though the Great Depression marked the decline of Waco’s cotton industry, business at the cotton oil mill continued for many years. The firm faced several setbacks in the mid-twentieth century, such as the fire which erupted in the mill in 1943, destroying the hull house and mixed feed plant. Yet operations continued, and even flourished. By 1950, workers completed construction on the two 120-foot-tall silos which today are noted as some of Waco’s most notable landmarks.

The latter half of the century saw a turn in the cotton mill’s fortunes. A serious drought followed by widespread Central Texas flooding in 1957 led to sporadic production, and in September the Small Business Administration granted the Brazos Valley Cotton Oil Company a disaster loan. However, the firm was unable to recover, and in July of 1958, stockholders sold the company to David C. Blintliff Interests of Houston. In the mid-1960s, ownership of the plant changed hands again, and the mill served as a storage facility for JPM Feeds. The facility sat vacant in the 1990s, although the Murphys, owners of JPM Feeds, retained ownership of the property.

In 2014, well-known television personalities and Wacoans Chip and Joanna Gaines purchased the mill from Gary Murphy with a vision to restore and repurpose the historic site. After receiving approval from the city, the pair began construction work on Magnolia Market, a $1.4 million project which was completed in October of 2015. Though the festival marketplace offers modern additions such as a retail showroom, a monthly antique and craft market, and a food truck court, the Gaineses are working to retain the historic integrity of the site through efforts such as the preservation of the original silos.

For nearly half a century, the mill bolstered Waco’s economy through its support of local farmers, provision of jobs, and international commerce. Today, the adaptive reuse and preservation efforts of the Gaineses ensure that the mill will retain this role at the heart of the city’s economic development for many years to come. 

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Meticulous and exacting, prolific Waco architect Milton W. Scott crafted a legacy throughout the city that has withstood the test of time. Today, his historic buildings stand as hallmark pieces of Waco’s rich history.

Born in New Orleans on August 23, 1872, Milton William Wallace Scott came from a long line of Scottish engineers, inventors, and builders. When his family moved to Waco following his father’s death in 1883, Scott found work as an apprentice carpenter at the age of eleven in order to support his widowed mother and three sisters. Although he never received a formal college education, Scott loved to read and study, and after his mother remarried, he began to work as a draftsman for his stepfather John P. Powers.

Scott left his stepfather’s business in 1906 when he began to collaborate with Glenn Allen on the design of First Baptist Church of Waco. At that same time, the pair also began to draw up plans for the construction of the Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Plant (now, the Dr Pepper Museum and Free Enterprise Institute). In 1907, he began working with noted Waco architect Roy E. Lane to design various private homes as well as the Rotan Grocery Company and the Brazos Investment Company.

As his reputation throughout the city grew, Scott received additional jobs which would cement his reputation as a Waco icon. In 1910, he partnered with T. Brooks Pearson on the design of Waco High, an elaborate three-storied project costing $140,000 (over $3 million in 2015) at its completion in 1913. During that extensive project, Scott met and married Ivy Eugenia Thompson Haythornwhite. The couple later had two children. By 1916, the couple purchased a family home at 617 North Fourth Street (as indicated on the Waco History map), and Scott designed and built a cluster of cottages and apartments around the home to rent out. Following 1913, Scott left his partners and branched out into his own work, though he sometimes employed associates and draftsmen to help with the workload.

Scott’s meticulous nature produced impressive architectural structures, but also frustrated many contractors. After his death, his son noted that Scott thought it was as his duty, as the on-site representative of the building’s owners, to oversee each detail of the construction process. Although his exacting demands may have produced some irritation, the results were unquestionable, as evidenced by the durability and strength of his designs. For instance, Scott designed many of the surviving multistory buildings of the 1953 tornado which devastated much of downtown Waco.

Scott’s work consumed his life. He took only two vacations during the last fifteen years before his death and worked tirelessly to ensure the quality and craftsmanship of his buildings. He designed buildings for various groups throughout the city, including eighteen public school buildings, portions of the Waco Methodist Home, Temple Rodef Shalom, and various buildings on the campuses of Baylor University and Texas A&M.

Though he had become well known throughout Waco and Central Texas, Scott scrambled for jobs after the Depression hit. He had been working to design an apartment complex as a personal project, but he lost most of his savings in the economic downturn. He struggled to find architecture commissions, and financial hardships compounded upon pre-existing health problems. He passed away in 1933.

Though some of Scott’s iconic work was torn down or destroyed during urban renewal in the 1960s, many of the buildings he designed still stand today. Structures such as Waco High and the Roosevelt Hotel convey this city’s great history while serving as reminders of Scott’s incredible work and lasting legacy.

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Ten weeks after the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, Waco was chosen as the site for a military training camp. The United States initially lacked the military manpower needed to fight in the war and needed to rapidly increase the number enrolled in the armed forces. Cooperation between Waco businessmen and the federal government allowed construction to begin on a troop training complex on July 20, 1917. Spread out on 10,700 acres of cotton fields and blackland farms, the military camp cost five million dollars to construct.

The site was named for Lt. Gen. Arthur MacArthur, a Medal of Honor recipient who served in the Civil War and the Spanish-American War. Eighteen thousand troops arrived to begin their training in September of 1917. These National Guardsmen, primarily from Wisconsin and Michigan, boosted the Waco population, stimulating economic growth for the city. Though Camp MacArthur possessed the capacity to hold around forty-five thousand troops, no more than twenty-eight thousand resided at the Waco training compound.

The camp consisted of administration offices, a tent city, a base hospital, and a number of other military buildings. Loretta Johnston, a nurse at the hospital in 1918, described the base as “very pleasing to the eye” and the hospital as a “pleasant place for [the] sick and convalescent soldiers.” Johnston also wrote of a recreation hall in the hospital which housed parties and dances for the nurses and officers on weekends.

The troops from Wisconsin and Michigan formed the Thirty-Second Infantry Division of the National Guard. After receiving basic training in Waco, these troops joined the American Expeditionary Forces near Langres, France, on February 24, 1918, where they received more training and ultimately became a front line unit.

After the deployment of the Thirty-Second Infantry Division, Camp MacArthur became an infantry replacement and training camp, as well as an officer school. Recruits from Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, and New Mexico arrived in Waco to receive their training until the camp became a demobilization center following the armistice of November 11, 1918.

The military center affected Waco in a number of ways. The population boost stimulated a period of economic prosperity which continued until the Great Depression. After the war’s conclusion, many soldiers returned to Waco. Even the annual fair held at the Texas Cotton Palace came to reflect the military presence in Waco. The Cotton Palace Exposition of 1917 catered heavily to soldiers, including exhibits such as a bullet-ridden German biplane. Additionally, the US Army’s insistence upon decreasing distractions for soldiers led to the closing of Waco’s red-light district known as “The Reservation.”

Camp MacArthur officially closed on March 7, 1919, and the land it formally encompassed was incorporated into the city of Waco. Portions of the materials from the camp were then used to construct a portion of the US-Mexican border; others were used to build houses in the Edgefield neighborhood in Waco.

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