R. T. Dennis and Co. helped furnish the homes of Central Texas for nearly seventy years. Known for its exceptional quality furnishings, R. T. Dennis thrived in downtown Waco and served as the premier home décor destination. Unfortunately, the R. T. Dennis building, as well as the company, met their end when an F5 tornado leveled the building in May 1953.

R. T. Dennis and Co. was born out of the dream of two brothers, Robert T. Dennis and James K. Dennis, in 1886. The two brothers first moved to Central Texas in 1874 and worked as rail-splitters in Hillsboro for a short time. Robert then tried his hand in the grocery and dry-goods businesses, but his passion existed elsewhere. Robert joined the furniture business, taking a job in 1875 with W. P. Martin and Bro., Furniture as a delivery wagon driver. He saw promotions to salesperson and bookkeeper in the coming years. After twelve years of learning the trade, Robert felt confident to step out on his own, and he started R. T. Dennis and Brother with James in Gatesville. In 1889, they decided to move their operations to Waco, as the city was growing rapidly and taking off as a market center. In 1892, the Dennis brothers rented a building on the corner of Fifth Street and Austin Avenue constructed by Richard Coke, which they later purchased in 1904, and the scene was set for the expansion of their business.

What began largely as a coffin and funeral service business soon exploded into a vibrant retail and wholesale enterprise for all types of furniture and carpets. In the first six months of operations in Waco, the company’s net worth skyrocketed from $8,000 to $50,000. R. T. Dennis and Co. also opened stores in Hillsboro (run by James Dennis), Bryan, and Temple. This sudden rise to success made Robert Dennis an important man in the Waco community, and he soon became the director of the Farmers and Merchants National Bank of Waco and eventually invested in a number of business ventures in town, including the ALICO building. He also kick-started Dennis Manufacturing, which produced some of the furniture for his store. Robert even used a bit of pageantry to advertise his business and attract attention, sometimes putting the costumes from the local opera in his shop windows and always having an impressive display at the Texas Cotton Palace each year. By 1915, the Dennis brothers were able to buy out rival furniture store Stratton Furniture and further expand their reach in the Waco economy. Following World War I, R. T. Dennis and Co. purchased the Tom Padgitt Company building that abutted the store to use as a warehouse, making the entire block of Fifth Street from Austin Avenue to Franklin Avenue under R. T. Dennis’s ownership.

The 1920s brought further growth for the company but also the loss of its founder. In 1920, Dennis decided to incorporate for an impressive sum of $500,000, and the company became R. T. Dennis and Co., Inc. The same year, Dennis sold Dennis Manufacturing and dedicated the business entirely to retail and wholesale furniture. By 1924 the company had started a mattress factory and employed four traveling salesmen covering three states: Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. These men traveled with photographs and catalogs and allowed people to place orders for R. T. Dennis furniture from afar. This required the company to keep a large stock on hand, and as a result it purchased real estate around Waco to use as warehouses. One such purchase came in 1926 when R. T. Dennis bought Waco Dry Goods on Sixth Street and Jackson Avenue. The Hilton then tapped R. T. Dennis to furnish its new hotel in downtown Waco in 1928 (which later became the Roosevelt Hotel). This turned out to be Dennis’s last major business deal, as he died in June of 1928 of a prolonged illness. Treasurer Willard Robert Wigley, whose father, W. J. Wigley, had helped found R. T. Dennis and Co. and R. T. Dennis and Wigley Co. (Dallas), took over as president upon Dennis’s death and remained in that position until the dissolution of the company.

R. T. Dennis and Co. went on to weather the Depression of the 1930s quite well, marketing their products as necessary and practical. Robert Dennis’s nephew-in-law, Rush H. Berry, enjoyed a promotion in the mid-1930s from secretary to vice president, a position he held until his death. In the 1940s his own son, Labon E. Berry, filled the secretary position and become general manager, with business continuing steadily throughout World War II. In 1950 the company was named to the Grand Rapids Furniture Makers Guild, a guild reserved for only the highest-quality furniture companies.

Despite all its success, the end of R. T. Dennis and Co. came swiftly and suddenly. On May 11, 1953, a massive Category 5 tornado ripped through downtown Waco. The site of the R. T. Dennis building was classified as the “impact area,” receiving the full force of the twister. Both the R. T. Dennis and Tom Padgitt buildings were reduced to rubble. Of the thirty-one employees in the building, twenty-two were killed. Some employees sought shelter in the basement, only for the basement to flood when the debris punctured a water pipe. Rescue volunteers worked for three days straight trying to clear the rubble and recover the bodies of those inside.

Included in the deceased were Rush H. Berry, vice president and treasurer, and Labon E. Berry, secretary and general manager. President Willard Wigley stood as the only surviving executive of the company, and he was soon hospitalized in Dallas for leukemia. With all its leadership deceased or incapacitated, the R. T. Dennis Board of Directors decided to close the company for good and to liquidate the remaining stock in Hillsboro, Temple, and Bryan. In a somber address, the granddaughter of R. T. Dennis and chairwoman of the board, Mrs. William Sloane, broke the news to the public in October 1953 that R. T. Dennis and Co., Inc., would not reopen. The historical marker of the tornado is located near the former R. T. Dennis building location.

Though the memory of R. T. Dennis and Co. will forever be linked to the 1953 tornado, the company was a source of light and prosperity in Waco for decades through its dedication to the community and quality service.

For more (including 31 images & 15 audio files) view the original article

After the Amicable Life Insurance Company opened for business on April 2, 1910, the owners began searching for a location to house their new business. The owners of First National Bank, located at Fifth Street and Austin Avenue, also served as members of the board of trustees for the Amicable Life Insurance Company (ALICO). The bank owners decided to sell their lot to ALICO, and in 1910, the insurance company demolished the old bank to break ground for the new building.

Construction began in August of 1910 on what was originally planned to be an eight-story building. Yet when the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas planned a taller building, ALICO increased the number of floors to seventeen. The hotel also increased its planned height, and ALICO ultimately decided to construct a twenty-two-story building. Construction finished exactly one year later in August of 1911. The Amicable building stood out from other buildings in the South in many ways. Though most buildings at this time were composed of concrete or masonry, the Amicable building boasted a steel frame. Also, the elevator system within was quite advanced for the time. In addition to these modern innovations, the ALICO building stood as the tallest building west of the Mississippi River and south of the Mason-Dixon line until 1929.

The building itself stands for the strength and stability of the Waco community and of downtown. While many businesses have come and gone throughout the history of downtown Waco, the ALICO building has stood strong since its creation in 1910. It weathered everything in Waco, from the Waco tornado of 1953 to urban renewal. The architects, Sanguinet and Staats of Fort Worth and Roy E. Lane of Waco, wanted to design a building that could survive any major catastrophe. They designed the building with a steel frame that could resist a hurricane-force wind. The bottom half of the outer façade was composed of granite and other stone, while the top was made of brick and terra cotta. It was designed to be sturdy but to have a look that was classic and appealing to the eye.

The first few floors of the building housed the First National Bank. The fourth floor through the twentieth all contained the same floor plan for office spaces, while floors above the twentieth consisted mostly of storage space. The Amicable building became the center of downtown, making its office space highly desirable and the shopping center immensely popular. People came to the Amicable building not only to shop but often just to marvel at the building itself. Until the mid-1940s, the ALICO building was bustling and full of offices that were not necessarily ALICO offices. For instance, radio station WACO was founded on the eighth floor of the building. This changed when the Amicable Life Insurance Company rapidly grew and needed to start buying back some of the offices because of their growing need for space.

The ALICO building has not only served as office space, however. The tower became Waco's crisis center following the 1953 tornado that struck the surrounding downtown area and claimed 114 lives. The building suffered only superficial damage and, having been built with its own generator, was the only major downtown structure with electricity. Medical and military officials coordinated search parties and rescue efforts from the First National Bank on the ground floor.

In 1982, the Texas State Historical Commission designated the ALICO building a historical landmark. The state uses this program to commemorate and preserve sites that have impacted state history. The first of its kind in the Southwest, the ALICO building became the focal point of activity in Waco for generations. Today, the ALICO building still towers above the Waco skyline, holding the offices of the now American-Amicable Life Insurance Company of Texas, as well as providing office space for other businesses located in downtown Waco.

For more (including 10 images & 1 audio file) view the original article