Random Stories

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…

Temple Rodef Sholom has the distinction of being McLennan County’s oldest and largest Jewish congregation. Jewish permanent settlers made Waco their home in the mid-nineteenth century. For many years no organized congregation existed; however,…

The Washington Avenue Bridge is a steel, Pennsylvania through truss bridge that spans the Brazos River and connects East Waco to downtown. Before the construction of the Washington Avenue Bridge, the Waco Suspension Bridge, built in 1870, offered…

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…

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Cotton

5 Locations ~ Curated by Baylor University Institute for Oral History & The Texas Collection

Houses of Worship

10 Locations ~ Curated by Baylor University Institute for Oral History & The Texas Collection

Athens of Texas

4 Locations ~ Curated by Baylor University Institute for Oral History & The Texas Collection

Waco History Podcast

Dr. Stephen Sloan of Baylor’s Institute for Oral History talks with others about Waco’s known and unknown past. This is the Waco History Podcast.

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