Random Stories

In the mid-twentieth century, Waco underwent major changes through the federally funded Urban Renewal Agency of Waco. Areas impacted included numerous city blocks between LaSalle Avenue and Waco Drive. The project greatly affected the city’s people,…

Texas Christian University called various Texas cities—including Waco—home for many years before settling permanently in Fort Worth. The university traces its origins to a small private school operated out of a brick church structure in Fort Worth,…

In its early days in the 1920s, Castle Heights was just a grassy hill at the end of the streetcar line, with a clear view of the Amicable building downtown. The city of Waco has since grown miles beyond the hill, and oaks and magnolia trees have…

Believed to have curative qualities, water from Waco’s artesian wells were popular during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Locals considered the discovery of the artesian water in 1889 one of the most important events in Waco up to…

At the end of the Civil War, a new nation seemed to be on the horizon. Emancipation and the beginning of Reconstruction signaled a shift in national, state, and local institutions across the country. The Reconstruction Era, though certainly flawed,…

Take a Tour

Historic Homes

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

Brazos River

10 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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