An African American-owned hotel during the period of segregation and Jim Crow laws, the College View Court-Hotel provided respite for black travelers on the road.
The College View Court-Hotel offered guests modern comfort with its thirty-five air-conditioned rooms and tiled bathrooms. Owned by Dr. J. W. Yancy II, president of Paul Quinn College from 1939 to 1942, the hotel operated throughout the 1950s and continued well into the late 1970s during a time of dramatic expansion in highway travel. Automobile ownership boomed in the post-World War II period. Advances in technology made cars increasingly reliable for long distance travel as well as more affordable to larger portions of society, including the emerging black middle class.
African Americans saw the mobility and freedom that highway travel offered as especially attractive. Despite the opportunities opened up by new technology and expanded infrastructure, travel still required extensive planning since many businesses refused to serve non-white citizens. The emergence of motels such as the College View Court-Hotel in the mid-twentieth century provided some relief. The College View offered convenient and affordable lodging to African Americans on the road. The amenities at motor lodges such as this one—such as the way rooms opened into the parking lot, or the offering of separate cabins for each family—made travel more accessible.
The Negro Motorist Green Book served as a vital guidebook for African American travelers. The College View Court-Hotel first appeared in the Green Book publication in 1951 and continued to appear in the updated edition throughout the 1950s and 1960s. It was The Green Book’s mission to “give the Negro traveler information that will keep him from running into difficulties, embarrassments and to make his trips more enjoyable,” in spite of harsh Jim Crow laws. It was an essential tool for the black traveler facing strict segregation.
The College View Court-Hotel stood as a symbol of the black middle class in Waco, serving African Americans who embraced travel throughout the country in spite of its difficulties. Yancy owned the hotel until it eventually closed and was razed in the 1970s. It is likely that decreased business following integration contributed to the motel’s closure. Today, visitors can still see the center steps and concrete landscape walls of the hotel at the business’s former address, 1129 Elm Avenue in Waco.
]]>In the early part of the twentieth century, the area around Bridge Street on the west side of the Brazos River, known as the square, was home to various bars, restaurants, grocery stores, offices, insurance agencies, and other businesses that were African-American owned. The square boasted popular institutions like the Gem Theatre, Mecca Drug Store, and the Jockey Club Barber Shop, the first black-owned barbershop in the city. It originally opened in 1920 on the bottom floor of the Conner & Willis building at Second Street and Franklin Avenue and was named Jockey Club after a line of beauty and hair-care products that the wife of the building’s owner’s wife spotted in Chicago. The owner Woodrow “Buster” Anderson had his son take over the business while he served during World War II. In 1944, Anderson’s nephew Benny Frank Smith came to the business and remained the owner until his death in 2004. The Jockey Club closed its doors in 2011 when its last barber, Lloyd Dugas, retired.
The Jockey Club Barber Shop weathered the 1953 tornado that demolished much of Bridge Street and the square. But in 1970, the federal urban renewal program cleared the entire area of some two hundred buildings, sparing only Waco City Hall. The business was forced to relocate to Elm Street and received only $2,500 in compensation for the move. Regardless of location, the barbershop remained a neighborhood icon for many generations.
Long-serving barbers Jesse Mayes, Lloyd Dugas, and Cicero Martin grew extremely close and attracted a loyal clientele. The barbers encouraged customers to stick around and catch up on Dallas Cowboy trivia and discuss who was missing from church last week. The Jockey Club was a place where the currency was talk and people got good, solid haircuts—not hairstyles. In its history, the barbershop attracted a number of celebrities including the famous baseball star Jackie Robinson. It was also a favorite of Baylor athletes like Walter Abercrombie and Michael Johnson. Many generations have remained loyal to the Jockey Club, even driving in from out of town to get a haircut after moving away from Waco. The barbershop remained an active part of the neighborhood, supporting local charities and caring about the community. It cultivated an irreplaceable and timeless environment through conversation, laughter, and haircuts and it represents a legacy of hard, honest work supported by loyal customers. The barbershop provided meaningful and memorable community for Waco citizens for countless years.
The Jockey Club’s service to the Waco community for over a century lives on today. Former owner Frank Smith’s widow, Iva, reopened the Jockey Club in February of 2016 much to the excitement of the neighborhood. The original barber chairs are still intact and have been reupholstered in dashing red and blue. The same seating remains along the wall coupled with the familiar Big Red vending machine. Tributes to the rich history of the shop are displayed all along the walls for customers to view. This Waco icon was designated a City of Waco Historic Landmark in 2023, and it continues to serve its community on Elm Avenue, preserving its legacy for future generations of customers.
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]]>As Americans took to the road in an age of expanded highway systems and ease of travel, the Alamo Plaza Courts Hotel pioneered the field of luxury motels. From a small but luxurious beginning in Waco, the company grew into a nationwide chain known for its safety, comfort, and distinct style in the mid-twentieth century.
Alamo Plaza founder Edgar Lee Torrence, born in 1893 and raised in McLennan County, grew up in Waco at a time when the city’s business culture began to develop. Architecture, such as the Amicable and Praetorian buildings, and the wealth of higher-education opportunities, found at institutions like Baylor University, Paul Quinn College, and Texas Christian University, reflected this changing atmosphere. The climate agreed with Torrence, who received a degree from Toby’s Business College after high school. After working as a bookkeeper, the young entrepreneur set out upon his own, opening a used car business just as the automobile industry began to take off throughout the nation around 1918.
The expanding US highway system in the 1920s struck Torrence as a unique opportunity. Though tourist cabins – typically known for convenience as opposed to comfort and cleanliness – dotted the highways, few respectable options existed for economical travelers. Torrence sought to fill this gap through a partnership with Waco Judge D. W. Bartlett. Altering their original plans to build an apartment, the pair laid plans for the construction of a luxury motel in the bustling city.
The Alamo Plaza Tourist Apartments—later renamed the Alamo Plaza Courts Hotel—opened on the 900 block of Elm Avenue in 1929 with a façade mirrored after a striking symbol used throughout the state to garner Texas pride. An open house featured the American Legion Drum and Bugle Corps, and local newspapers touted the complex as “Waco’s finest tourist apartments” offering travelers every modern comfort. This would come to be the model upon which Torrence operated the Alamo Plaza business.
Adamant that Alamo Plaza remain distinct in every way, Torrence avoided the U-shape design prevalent among tourist cabins at that time. In an interview in 1953, he dismissed that model as “fit only for a barn,” instead utilizing the façade of the Alamo in San Antonio to frame the front and rear entrances to the motel, connected by a single story of tourist apartments on each side.
Despite the onset of the Great Depression shortly after construction, Alamo Plaza saw success in Waco, prompting Torrence to open a second location in Tyler, Texas, in 1931. He continued to expand the business into one of the first national motel chains, placing Alamo Plazas in multiple southern states. He sometimes partnered with family members or friends to open new locations. At other times, enterprising businessmen copied his luxury motel model and utilized the complex name, often without his permission.
As early as 1931, newspaper advertisements described Alamo Plaza motels as among the nation’s finest. The basis for similar motels in over twenty cities throughout the nation, the Alamo Plaza Courts Hotel in Waco became known for safe, comfortable, and innovative accommodations. In 1936, Alamo Plaza motels became some of the first in the nation to place telephones in individual rooms. Just over a decade later, the chain once again became a pioneer in the field, placing a television set in each room.
Though Waco’s Alamo Plaza Courts Hotel closed in the mid-1950s, the model the business established continued on throughout the nation for many years.
]]>During the twentieth century, Elm Avenue served as a commercial hub and community center in East Waco. Looking to launch his own venture, entrepreneur Ike Kestner opened a bank and grocery store in the 500 block of the street in 1914. A full-page advertisement in the Waco News-Tribune announcing “fifteen days of wonderful bargains” reveals the store’s transition to dry goods’ sales by the 1920s.
Kestner’s Family Department Store became a central part of life along Elm Avenue. Patrons loyally returned to the store because of its quality merchandise offered at low prices. McLennan County Commissioner Lester Gibson told the Waco Tribune-Herald that he grew up shopping in Kestner’s where his mother bought him overalls and ties because it was “a working man’s store.” Waco newspapers frequently ran advertisements for Kestner’s manufacturer outlet sales which proudly offered merchandise for less than the raw materials could be purchased for. The family atmosphere of the department store also contributed to its success. Ike trained his son, Jack Kestner, to run the store alongside him. Jack later passed on the ownership of the store to his son-in-law, Howard Cohen, although he himself continued to work in the store until he retired in 1985.
The 1950s and 1960s represented Elm Avenue’s prime. The street filled with crowds travelling amongst shops and restaurants, stopping in various stores. Kestner’s employees often found it impossible to stop for breaks because the shop filled with customers. However, the suburbanization of Waco took a heavy toll on East Waco. Shops left Elm Avenue for the swiftly developing Valley Mills Drive, and walk-in traffic at Kestner’s waned following the opening of Wal-Mart.
To meet this trend, Kestner’s Family Department Store expanded to a second location in 1979 on North Thirty-Fourth Street under Cohen’s ownership. Since the majority of the department store’s sales were composed of men’s clothing, Cohen also opened Kestner’s Fine Jewelry Store on Bosque Boulevard in order to widen Kestner’s customer base.
Longtime employee Donald Fadal began working in the store during its heyday in 1960 and became the owner in 1984. To meet the challenge of the department store’s dwindling customer base, Fadal carried on the Kestner’s tradition of hard work, customer service, and quality merchandise. He developed personal services such as free alterations to entice greater sales and drew upon the loyal following which Ike and Jack had cultivated during the store’s early days.
Much to the dismay of longtime patrons and many East Wacoans, Fadal decided to retire in 2002 due to health concerns. Although Kestner’s Family Department Store closed in March of 2003 after one final sale, its nearly ninety years of low prices, quality goods, and dedicated customer service established it as a vital piece of the history of both Elm Avenue and Waco.
]]>At the corner of Clifton Street and Elm Avenue is Jasper’s Bar-B-Que, Waco’s oldest-operating barbecue restaurant. Although East Waco has undergone many changes, Jasper’s has never changed locations and remains a place where residents today can expect to be served the same fare that brought their hungry predecessors to the counter at its opening in 1919.
Jasper’s began as a humble pushcart fruit stand operated by Italian immigrant Jasper DiMaria. In its early days of operation, the cart’s customer base was largely comprised of passengers from the interurban railway. Waco was the last stop on the rail line to Dallas, and travelers would frequent DiMaria’s cart to purchase refreshments for the remaining long haul. Recognizing the profitability of offering more substantial foodstuffs from his cart, DiMaria started selling barbecue. He would go to a nearby meat-packer and purchase a quarter of a cow or a bull. Soon customers were lining up for dishes like chopped beef and gravy or neck bone.
As demand for his takeout barbecue increased, DiMaria abandoned the cart for a permanent structure. Requiring nothing fancy, DiMaria set up shop in a building with a dirt floor, a table he brought from home, and a few picnic benches. Customers were not put off by this humble establishment, and word of mouth spread about the menu at Jasper’s. Soon locals flocked to Jasper’s as well as travelers. Legend has it that when the restaurant’s lines would sometimes stretch down the street, DiMaria would walk to the place in line where he estimated the food would run out and pronounce it to be the end of line. Everyone past that point would have to try again the next day to get their barbecue order.
When his son Tony became old enough to join the family business, DiMaria renamed it Jasper DiMaria & Son Bar-B-Que. The restaurant remained family-owned until Tony’s retirement in 1990.
Although the DiMaria family is no longer involved in its daily operation, Jasper’s Bar-B-Que has remained true to the cooking practices and flavors of its namesake. The original boiling pit is still on premise, allowing the tradition of boiling the meat in a large vat of au jus to continue. Jasper’s most sought-after items continue to be neck bones and its signature gravy. The chopped beef is still served with slices of white bread on butcher paper, and the gravy is made according to the original recipe.
Jasper’s Bar-B-Que stands out for more than just its time-tested recipes. Its longevity has allowed the restaurant to also function as a community hub for East Wacoans. Tony Thompson, a server who has been employed by Jasper’s for more than two decades, notes that it is not unusual to see multiple generations of East Wacoans dining at Jasper’s. They come not only for the food but to discuss sports, politics, and life events. Thompson is proud of the fact Jasper’s is located in East Waco and considers it a privilege to serve the community he was raised in.
By preserving the recipes of Jasper DiMaria and serving as a community gathering place, Jasper’s Bar-B-Que remains true to its roots.
]]>Paul Quinn College is the oldest historically black college in Texas. Though it is no longer located in Waco, it remains an important part of the city’s history as the “Athens on the Brazos.”
In 1872 the African Methodist Episcopalian Church founded the Connectional School for the Education of Negro Youth in Austin as a means to provide education to former slaves. Five years later, the campus moved to Waco, where it occupied a small building located at Eighth Street and Mary Avenue until an increase in funding allowed the school to relocate to a new facility on Elm Avenue. In 1881, officials renamed the school for Bishop William Paul Quinn, a Methodist missionary.
Paul Quinn acted as an academic alternative for black students excluded from other institutions of higher education in the pre-Civil Rights era. Early on the college focused primarily on vocational training although it did offer a few courses in theology, English, Latin, music, and math. In the mid-1960s, options for many college-bound students expanded when two new schools joined the higher education landscape in Waco, McLennan Community College and Texas State Technical College. For black students, Paul Quinn remained the only option, and it was a largely unsatisfactory one. Its academic standards were not competitive with the other schools, its facilities were sub-par, and it was unable to receive sufficient funding to improve either situation. When Baylor, MCC, and TSTC racially integrated, Paul Quinn’s appeal dropped so far that the school was in danger of closing permanently.
In the mid-1960s, the Paul Quinn administration appointed a new dean named William Milton Collins, in the hope that he would be able to revitalize the college. Dean Collins did not disappoint. He established a new education department and introduced fine arts classes. He also began an accreditation process that would help Paul Quinn’s academic program improve.
The period between the late 1960s and the early 1970s was one of dramatic change at Paul Quinn. Enrollment greatly increased and administrators oversaw the construction of two new residence halls and a library by 1968. The college launched major development initiatives to help fund student scholarships and provide for campus expansion, but were also intended to increase community involvement and support.
In the late 1980s, African American businessman Comer S. Cottrell presented Paul Quinn with the opportunity to take over the property of the vacated Bishop College in Dallas. With the hopes of revitalizing campus life and opening up its programs to a larger urban market, Paul Quinn seized the opportunity to move north. In September of 1990, the school transferred all operations to the former Bishop campus with the assistance of several corporate sponsors. Paul Quinn College is still in existence in Dallas.
The historic Paul Quinn College campus in Waco fell into temporary disuse after the school’s relocation, but has since entered a period of renewal. Many of the original buildings are now being utilized by Rapoport Academy, continuing the goal of educating future generations.
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