La Pila

At a fountain named La Pila, children frequently splashed and played while others took a drink or filled jars and buckets with water. La Pila, meaning “the basin,” was the centerpiece and social hub of the historic Calle Dos neighborhood from the 1920s to the 1960s. Fed by an artesian well close by, the fountain produced warm, drinkable water to a neighborhood in which few had access to running water in their homes.

The origin of La Pila is unknown, although Waco newspapers suggest that the city authorized the construction of an artesian well near the area in 1915, and it was reported in 1933 that a fountain in the area was fed by a nearby well with warm water. Children would play and bathe in its waters, and families would bring containers to fill from its four faucets, taking the water home to use for cooking, drinking, and cleaning. Often day laborers gathered at La Pila, waiting to be picked up for work. The fountain’s artesian waters even drew Waco residents who did not live in Calle Dos. Rudy Solano, who lived in Calle Dos as a child, recalled that “people would pull up in their fancy cars and load up their fancy glass containers.” While La Pila held a communal significance for the residents of Calle Dos, it served the broader Waco area as well. 

In 1950, the waters of La Pila dried up. Although its practical use had faded, it still served as a gathering place for the community until Urban Renewal destroyed both Calle Dos and La Pila in 1958. Urban Renewal was an effort to clear “slums” from the downtown area, and it happened in cities across the nation. Low-income neighborhoods and minority communities were those most impacted, displaced from homes and businesses. La Pila was buried, and its concrete edges were damaged even further with the later expansion of University Parks Drive. 

In 2016 Alice Rodriguez, founder of the Waco Hispanic Museum, and Louis Gayton-Garcia decided that unearthing La Pila would be an excellent way to commemorate an important aspect of Waco Hispanic heritage. Partnering with archaeologist Katherine Turner-Pearson, the work to excavate the historic fountain began the following year with a grant for the project from Baylor Philanthropy and Public Service. The money was quickly exhausted, and Turner-Pearson used donations from the community and an army of volunteers, including students from the nearby Indian Spring Middle School, to contribute to the project and to educate the community about the process of excavation. 

In 2020, Pearson-Turner and the Waco Hispanic Museum wanted to take the project in very different directions. The Waco Hispanic Museum had wanted to completely unearth La Pila and create a small park or monument out of it, perhaps with benches and art surrounding it. Pearson-Turner, however, believed it would be best to rebury La Pila because of the complications in getting volunteers during the COVID-19 pandemic. She explained that it was a common archaeological practice to uncover an artifact enough to make a report about it and then backfill and rebury the item to protect it. With loss of funding and volunteers, the recommendation of the Texas Historical Commission to backfill, and the lack of a detailed plan with Waco ISD to turn the fountain into a monument on their property, La Pila became once again a buried memory. 

La Pila’s future is uncertain. It might be uncovered again and reconstructed, or it might remain as it is. Regardless of what happens, La Pila still stands in the memories of those who lived in Calle Dos as a symbol of their community, and the excavation project ensured that the legacy of La Pila was shared with a new generation of Wacoans.