The history of Fort House is as much a narrative about a nineteenth-century family home as it is local twentieth century efforts to preserve the landmarks of Waco’s prosperous past.
The man behind one of Waco’s more distinctive homes was not a Texas native. Originally from La Grange, Alabama, William A. Fort came to Waco in 1854 with a caravan of five hundred people. He and his father established a plantation four miles south of Waco in the Downsville area. On May 7, 1856, he married Dionita Elizabeth Wilson. After the Civil War, Fort decided the area south of Waco was too devastated, so he purchased six acres of land at South Fourth Street and Webster Avenue from his wife for $1,300. In 1868, he built Fort House and moved his family to the city. Fort rose to prominence within Waco as the acting president of Waco National Bank, and the owner of the city’s first transit system.
Fort designed the house according to the Greek Revival style. It is constructed of locally made pink brick possibly sourced from the Trice brick kiln in East Waco. On either side of the front door are cypress wood, fluted ionic columns. The columns were made in New Orleans, shipped to Galveston, and then transported to Waco overland by ox cart and flat-bottom boat. The house also features cypress shutters and pine trim. The balcony above the front door originally extended to the columns.
The earliest floor plan consisted of a central hall with a bedroom on the left; staircase, parlor, and dining room on the right. The upper floor repeated the arrangement below with bedrooms to the right and left of a central hallway. At first the home featured a detached kitchen in order to minimize the danger of fire and to prevent kitchen heat, odor, and noise from entering the house. Around 1876, Fort elongated the ell, or perpendicular wing of the house, by adding two bedrooms on the upper floor and a kitchen and three-walled area on the first floor. This area was left open for wagons to pull in and unload provisions directly to the house.
The original plot of land on which Fort House stands extended from South Fourth Street and Webster Avenue to encompass six or more acres. The western boundary was Fifth Street. A white picket fence enclosed the property until the Fort family replaced it with a fancier wrought- iron fence sometime prior to 1890. This enclosure was necessary as the Fort family kept horses, cows, and poultry and maintained extensive vegetable gardens and orchards. Fort House underwent significant changes in the early twentieth century. From 1911 to 1955, the house ceased to be the residence of its namesake family and was rented out to various tenants. The property fell into decline until the Junior League of Waco purchased it in 1956. The Junior League commissioned architects Bob Bennett of Waco and Raiford Stripling of San Augustine, authorities on early Texas restorations, with the task of returning the home to its former state. Initially, the organization intended to use the refurbished home as a headquarters and tearoom. However, recognizing the property’s historic value, the Junior League deeded the house to the Waco Society for Historic Preservation (later Historic Waco Foundation). In 1970, Congressman W. R. Poage announced Fort House had been selected for the National Register of Historic Places. The residence served as a public museum until 2019. In March 2019, Chip and Joanna Gaines purchased the home to be added to their Magnolia Market properties. Although it is no longer open for viewing, Fort House stands preserved as a physical reminder of the legacy of the Fort family and the value Wacoans place on history.
]]>For over a century, the Hippodrome Theatre has stood as a downtown home for ever-changing forms of entertainment.
The venue emerged in the early twentieth century through advocates for a downtown theater banding together. A group of local businessmen, organized by Thomas Finnegan, hired architects to design a structure dedicated to live performances and cinema. In 1913, ground broke on what became an iconic piece of the city’s architecture, designed by Waco’s own Roy E. Lane and Dallas architects Otto Land and Frank Witchell. On February 7, 1914, Wacoans gathered at 724 Austin Avenue and paid ten cents a ticket to view the grand opening of the Hippodrome Theatre, featuring a live seal act, magic show, and five-piece orchestra.
For many years, the Hippodrome served as a hub of downtown entertainment. Locals came to know the theater managed by J. P. Harrison and well-known theater entrepreneur Earl Henry Hulsey as “Hulsey’s Hipp.” Vaudeville troupes and silent films filled the theater’s early bills. As the popularity of moving pictures steadily grew, the Hippodrome—an affiliate of Paramount Pictures—steadily began to replace live acts with silent films.
A production booth fire in 1928 destroyed much of the forward portion of the building and brought about serious changes. Louis Dent of Southern Enterprises reopened the theater in 1929 with a new name and a new face. A redesigned Spanish Colonial Revival-style façade and cool air-conditioned air greeted moviegoers at the Waco Theatre. A few years later, new equipment allowed the theater to catch up with local rivals, such as the Orpheum Theatre on Sixth Street, which were already playing talkies. In 1931, the Waco Theatre played its first movie with sound.
The Waco Theatre continued the Hippodrome’s tradition, serving as a prominent figure in the Texas entertainment industry. Visitors from small Texas towns filled downtown Waco on the weekends and caught a show at the Hippodrome in the evening. Big-name performers drew large crowds to the movie theater. Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, and Fanny Brice each stopped at the theater in the 1930s, and Elvis Presley once caught a show at the Waco Theatre during his time stationed at Fort Hood.
In 1936, new construction added a second story to the grand theater, and two more renovations followed in the 1950s and early 1970s. However, more challenges loomed ahead. By the mid-twentieth century, attention had shifted to suburban areas, and many businesses headed out of the city. Although the theater survived the 1953 tornado unscathed, much of downtown did not. The Twenty Fifth Street Theater began to draw away the downtown audience, and the construction of Twin Cinema in the 1960s brought more customers to the suburbs. The last movie played at the Waco Theatre on December 15, 1974. The building sat vacant for over six years.
The Junior League, the Cooper Foundation, and local volunteers banded together in the 1980s to undertake a restoration project, leading to the reopening of the Waco Hippodrome Theatre on February 28, 1987. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and operated by the Waco Performing Arts Company, the historic theater began to draw visitors back to Austin Avenue once again with live performances. However, the success was short-lived. The steady popularity of suburban theaters kept attendance low, and maintenance for the historic structure proved too costly for fundraisers to maintain. The theater closed again in 2010.
Local developers Shane and Cody Turner purchased the property in 2012 with a vision for adapting the structure. While retaining the building’s historic look, the brothers added a wall to the second story to allow two films to be shown at once and renovated the second floor lobby into a bar. A modern addition on the Eighth Street side of the theater features a restaurant and concession stand. The Hippodrome reopened in November of 2014.
In 2020, parts of the theatre were once again closed for renovations. Now used primarily as a concert hall and adaptive event space, the Hippodrome continues to bring people together and is a centerpiece of Waco’s entertainment scene.
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