On the corner of South Eleventh Street and Cleveland Ave, Cruz’s Drive Inn stood as a cornerstone to the community for over 50 years. Four generations of the Cruz family served both the neighborhood near the Kate Ross apartments and countless Hispanic Wacoans. The store became a hub for news and support for its many patrons.
Cruz’s Drive Inn was opened in 1965 by Juan and Lilia Cruz. They purchased the store at 826 South Eleventh Street from the Tusa family, prominent Waco grocers at the time, to help relieve Juan’s father Cayetano from a depression caused by the loss of his wife, Leonarda. In the early years, Cayetano and Lilia ran the store during the day, and Juan closed the store at night after his shift at Clark Transit Mix Concrete. Juan maintained his job driving a concrete truck until the store was well established and proved profitable.
The store had a deli counter selling meats and cheeses, bread, candy, beer, cigarettes, sodas, kerosene, and snow cones. As the business grew, so did the property around the store. Juan purchased a former bar and repair shop that would become storage buildings for the store. Lilia, who ran the financial side of the business, saved profits from snow cone sales to expand the store’s physical footprint. They saved enough to add onto the building, and in early 1980, the expanded store opened without missing a day of business. The larger establishment allowed for the sale of more products, many of which catered to the Hispanic community. Items included religious candles, oils, Mexican herbs and spices, piñatas, Spanish language books and magazines, card games such as lotería and naipes, paletas, Mexican sodas, and more. In later years, the store even sold phone cards and money transfers. These were purchased mainly by Hispanic immigrants and workers to stay in contact with and support their families in Mexico or other Latin American countries.
As a neighborhood store, Cruz’s maintained a regular clientele, seeing generations of families returning year after year. Through good times and bad, the Cruz Family and their clients supported each other. Mr. Cruz often extended credit to those in need, allowing them to purchase goods and later pay the bill when they were able. Some of these debts remained unpaid when the store closed but were proof of the goodwill and faith between the family and community. This mutual respect also added to Juan’s property holdings. As neighbors moved away or passed, the families often offered Mr. Cruz the first opportunity to purchase the land or houses. In addition to supporting the immediate neighborhood, Cruz’s supported other small local businesses, including Jimenez Bakery and Tiempo Newspaper, by purchasing and distributing their goods.
In 1995, Juan’s first grandchild began working at the store part time in the evenings. Seven of his eleven grandchildren would do the same. In 1999, Juan suffered a heart attack and could not work for several months. At this point, his daughter Diana Hernandez began working full time at the store. She quickly learned the business, taking inventory, purchasing goods from regular vendors, operating the cash register, and serving as the food manager over the deli counter. As more family members became involved in the operation of the store, it became the setting for many birthdays and small holidays and a place for the grandkids to stop by and visit between classes at MCC, TSTC, or Baylor University.
Juan Cruz passed in May 2007, leaving the business in the hands of his wife and children. His daughter, Diana Hernandez, was integral to the running of the store until it closed in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, Mrs. Cruz sold the property, nearly a half city block acquired piecemeal by Mr. Cruz based on his foresight of the eventual change and development of the neighborhood. Mr. Cruz envisioned opening a storage facility on the land he acquired but never had the opportunity; however, the neighborhood did change as he predicted. Nearby houses that had long been rental properties were sold and renovated to accommodate the influx of visitors to the Magnolia Silos.
Cruz’s Drive Inn was a family business, not only for the Cruzes, but for those in the surrounding community. Customers often returned after years of absence and recalled to their children buying candy, pickles, chips, snow cones, and chopped beef sandwiches. Additionally, bilingual service (English and Spanish), evoked a sense of place in a new environment for Hispanics new to Waco. Familiar products and the atmosphere made Cruz’s a place of comfort and community to all who walked through the doors.
For more (including 6 images & 2 audio files) view the original article
]]>During the twentieth century, Elm Avenue served as a commercial hub and community center in East Waco. Looking to launch his own venture, entrepreneur Ike Kestner opened a bank and grocery store in the 500 block of the street in 1914. A full-page advertisement in the Waco News-Tribune announcing “fifteen days of wonderful bargains” reveals the store’s transition to dry goods’ sales by the 1920s.
Kestner’s Family Department Store became a central part of life along Elm Avenue. Patrons loyally returned to the store because of its quality merchandise offered at low prices. McLennan County Commissioner Lester Gibson told the Waco Tribune-Herald that he grew up shopping in Kestner’s where his mother bought him overalls and ties because it was “a working man’s store.” Waco newspapers frequently ran advertisements for Kestner’s manufacturer outlet sales which proudly offered merchandise for less than the raw materials could be purchased for. The family atmosphere of the department store also contributed to its success. Ike trained his son, Jack Kestner, to run the store alongside him. Jack later passed on the ownership of the store to his son-in-law, Howard Cohen, although he himself continued to work in the store until he retired in 1985.
The 1950s and 1960s represented Elm Avenue’s prime. The street filled with crowds travelling amongst shops and restaurants, stopping in various stores. Kestner’s employees often found it impossible to stop for breaks because the shop filled with customers. However, the suburbanization of Waco took a heavy toll on East Waco. Shops left Elm Avenue for the swiftly developing Valley Mills Drive, and walk-in traffic at Kestner’s waned following the opening of Wal-Mart.
To meet this trend, Kestner’s Family Department Store expanded to a second location in 1979 on North Thirty-Fourth Street under Cohen’s ownership. Since the majority of the department store’s sales were composed of men’s clothing, Cohen also opened Kestner’s Fine Jewelry Store on Bosque Boulevard in order to widen Kestner’s customer base.
Longtime employee Donald Fadal began working in the store during its heyday in 1960 and became the owner in 1984. To meet the challenge of the department store’s dwindling customer base, Fadal carried on the Kestner’s tradition of hard work, customer service, and quality merchandise. He developed personal services such as free alterations to entice greater sales and drew upon the loyal following which Ike and Jack had cultivated during the store’s early days.
Much to the dismay of longtime patrons and many East Wacoans, Fadal decided to retire in 2002 due to health concerns. Although Kestner’s Family Department Store closed in March of 2003 after one final sale, its nearly ninety years of low prices, quality goods, and dedicated customer service established it as a vital piece of the history of both Elm Avenue and Waco.
]]>Bridge Street holds an important legacy of connecting North, South, and East Waco, and serving as a center of community for the city’s many ethnic groups. Known as Main Street during Waco’s early days, this historic street earned its new name after the construction of the Waco Suspension Bridge around 1870. Over time, many of the wooden buildings lining Bridge Street became so dilapidated that the street earned the nickname Rat Row. A fire devastated the street in 1871, and businesses rebuilt using stone, thereby improving the image and stability of Bridge Street.
The majority of the African American community worked in businesses on Bridge Street during the nineteenth century. After the close of the Civil War and the emancipation of slaves, African Americans hired themselves out in Waco in positions according to the skills and experience they possessed. Most worked as laborers and servants, though many worked in positions such as farmers, schoolteachers, and carpenters.
Near the turn of the century, Bridge Street emerged as the center of the minority-owned business community and became a communal gathering point. According to the Waco city directory, African American-owned barbershops emerged on Bridge Street as early as 1877, and several Chinese laundries and a Hispanic grocery store opened in 1892. Over the next decade, the number of minority-owned businesses increased rapidly.
On the weekends, Bridge Street filled with families and citizens from all over Waco. Restaurants, taverns, hotels, and theaters offered entertainment and enjoyment, while doctors, dentists, grocers, tailors, and other business owners met the community’s other needs. Bridge Street also served as the center for several African American newspapers for Waco, including the Waco Messenger.
Tragedy struck Waco, and Bridge Street, in 1953. A tornado tore through downtown, taking one hundred and fourteen lives and destroying many businesses. Several buildings on Bridge Street collapsed, injuring or killing the people within. Businesses closed, leaving the lots vacant for several years. A few, such as the Mecca Drug Store, found the funds to rebuild. The citywide urban renewal project tore down the remaining buildings on Bridge Street in 1968, leaving only City Hall standing.Today, many lament the way in which urban renewal displaced Waco’s minorities through the destruction of Bridge Street. Though the buildings no longer stand, Bridge Street remains an important part of Waco’s history. Not only did it provide a place for Waco’s minorities to engage in commerce in the heart of downtown, but it served as a communal gathering place in which respite from prejudice and segregation could be found in the mid-twentieth century.
For more (including 5 images & 4 audio files) view the original article
]]>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.
For more (including 9 images & 3 audio files) view the original article
]]>