Recent Stories
Shep Mullens
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,…
St. James United Methodist Church
St. James United Methodist Church, originally a Methodist Episcopal church, has existed almost as long as the city of Waco itself. Founded in 1874 by Anderson Brack, a formerly enslaved man, the congregation started with roughly fifty-three members.…
Freedom Fountain
Tragedy marked the experiences of many during the Vietnam War. On the home front, Americans increasingly questioned the country’s role in the conflict and lamented the loss they watched unfold throughout the first widely televised war. Americans…
Juneteenth
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…
Dr. Mae Jackson
Born the daughter of educators in segregated Mexia, Texas, in 1941, Mae Allison Johnson developed an early understanding of the significance of education and equality. Her parents, Allison Johnson and Eula King, met while working at a small country…
Monnig's Department Store
For many immigrants throughout the 1800s, the United States seemed to be a land filled with promise. Texas, in particular, appeared to be a place where dreams could be fulfilled. Otto Monnig, a Prussian immigrant to Missouri, believed this to be…
Featured Stories
Interurban Railway
Waco was a city on the move at the turn of the twentieth century, and its run into modernity was aided by the advent of the interurban electric railway.
Although Waco had other forms of mass transit since the days of the stagecoach, with first…
Waco Dam
Throughout its history, Waco has been affected by a constant cycle of drought and flooding due to its prime location near several major rivers. The construction of Lake Waco Dam was one of the most successful efforts to address these issues,…
Abraxas Club
During the early 1970s, the rhythms of Austin's much-acclaimed music scene reverberated through McLennan County from Bellmead's Abraxas Club.
Until the club's founding, Waco had remained relatively closed off to the music culture…
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Brazos River
10 Locations ~ Curated by Baylor University Institute for Oral History & The Texas CollectionAfrican American History
27 Locations ~ Curated by Baylor University Institute for Oral History & The Texas CollectionWaco History
A project by Baylor UniversityWaco History is a free mobile app that puts the history of Waco and McLennan County at your fingertips. Waco History lets you explore the people, places, and moments that have shaped our community’s history. Learn about the region through layered, map-based, multimedia presentations, use social media to share your stories, and experience curated historical tours of Central Texas.
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