Without the construction of Waco Hall, Baylor University might reside in Dallas, Texas. In the early 1900s, some Baylor representatives pushed for the university to relocate and had already placed parts of the institution in Dallas, including the newly established medical school. Resisting such a transition, Wacoans banded together to keep the university in the city. Under the auspices of the Waco-Baylor Campaign, community and university leaders introduced a plan titled “Greater Baylor University” in May 1928. Wacoans pledged to raise $350,000 in support of the university, with the agreement that no additional gifts would be required over the next three years. Texas Baptists committed to matching Waco’s donations. Local leaders believed these efforts to be favorable for both Waco and Baylor. Committing to an investment in the expansion of the university meant potential growth and flourishing in Waco.

Early on, city and university leaders decided that funds would support the construction of a new building on Baylor’s campus. Seeking to visually represent the connections between Waco and Baylor, leaders of the Waco-Baylor Campaign decided to name the new building Waco Hall. Embodying the relationship between the local community and the university, Waco Hall would serve as a performance and gathering space for Wacoans and Baylor students, faculty, and staff. Eager citizens quickly raised the recommended $350,000, and Wacoans, showing broad support for Waco Hall, went above the original amount, donating a total of $416,000 by June 1928.

Once the campaign met fundraising goals, trustees of Baylor University contemplated the building’s potential location. They decided on Seventh Street and Speight Avenue and completed plans for construction by March 13, 1929. Architects Lang and Mitchell of Dallas finalized structural decisions soon after, and on June 25, 1929, Baylor officials poured Atlas Portland Cement into the foundation. Soon after, O. K. Johnson Construction of Waco began to lay the foundation for the 200-by-200-foot building and finished the project in early 1930. On May twenty-seventh of that year, Baylor University held a dedication ceremony for the newly completed Waco Hall.

From the start of the project, city and Baylor leaders envisioned a structure that would serve as an auditorium for both the community and university. Though university leaders initially expected to only host graduation ceremonies in Waco Hall, the building expanded as a venue for Waco Symphony Orchestra concerts and as the location for Baylor’s School of Music and Department of Art.

At the time of its opening, Waco Hall’s 41,985 square feet contained nine classrooms, six offices, and an auditorium with a capacity of 2,400. The building also featured the Brooks Memorial Organ and a recital hall. Over time, Waco Hall expanded and experienced multiple renovation efforts. In 1957, university leaders added a west annex named Roxy Grove Hall in honor of the previous dean of the School of Music. The facility expanded and improved once more in 1965, when leaders constructed an east annex and installed new auditorium seats. In 1978, Baylor funded another renovation project, adding entry and exit ramps, first-floor restrooms, a custom lighting panel, and additional parking. The community and university funded the placement of acoustic panels in 1997, which debuted on October sixteenth at a Waco Symphony Orchestra concert.

Home to the Waco Symphony Orchestra since 1965, scores of other well-known artists and speakers have performed in front of local audiences at Waco Hall. Hollywood icons Katharine Hepburn, Dorothy Lamour, and Claude Rains graced the stage. Opera stars Marian Anderson and Waco’s own Jules Bledsoe dazzled audiences in 1939, and two years later, Bob Hope presented his comedic variety act to Waco audiences. In 1951, Billy Graham preached at Waco Hall, becoming an honorary Noze Brother during his campus visit. Prominent political figures also spoke in Waco Hall, including Presidents Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, and Lyndon B. Johnson, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, activist Ralph Nader, and Mark Felt, the notorious “Deep Throat” in the Watergate scandal. Renowned musical acts Bachman-Turner Overdrive, John Denver, Amy Grant, and Texas native Waylon Jennings performed there, too.

Waco Hall continues to host community-wide and university events. As at its beginning, the hall hosts University Chapel for students across Baylor’s campus. The auditorium also remains the location for important all-university events, such as Freshman Mass Meeting, Founders Day, All University Sing, Pigskin Revue, and other community and university pageants and ceremonies.

The stage, orchestra pit, and now 2,200-person auditorium in Waco Hall continue to provide a performance and gathering space for the community and university. More than just a building, Waco Hall exemplifies the relationship between Baylor University and the City of Waco—one that spans back before 1930 and continues into the present.

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The Waco Symphony Orchestra is a music organization that brings enrichment to the Central Texas community. The Waco Symphony Orchestra Association, Incorporated, as we know it, began its concerts in 1962. However, an orchestra conducted by Max Reiter began in 1939 as an experiment that laid the foundation for the Waco Symphony Orchestra's classical performances today.

Born in Trieste, Italy, in 1905, Reiter began his musical career as assistant of the Opera of Berlin, and conducted orchestras in other musical centers of Europe. Fleeing from Hitler’s inferno, Reiter went to New York City in 1939 with a dream to land a job as a conductor. After denial from jobs in New York, Reiter collected contact information from musicians in Southern cities, purchased a bus ticket, and headed south. 

Waco was a scheduled stop on Reiter’s bus. While waiting for his connection to Fort Worth, Reiter wandered along the nearby streets and noticed a sign that read, “H. Novich, China.” Recognizing the name from his list of contacts, Reiter introduced himself to Miss Mary Novich, stating that he wanted to start a symphony. At once, Mary and her sister Rae put together a list of local patrons of the arts. Patrons of the arts assured that the Baylor University School of Music faculty and students would support his endeavors, and the university offered Waco Hall as a performance venue.   With much enthusiasm, the new symphony orchestra set the date of its debut performance for April 20, 1939. In the weeks leading to the opening, Baylor faculty and students and local and amateur musicians practiced to play as a single unit. Excitement was in the air. On the evening of the debut concert, Reiter gave the eager audience a bow and raised his baton to bring ninety musicians to attention. Reiter’s orchestra gave their all as they played through four pieces of music that demonstrated the musicians’ disciplined sound and dynamic range. The final piece, Johann Strauss’s Tales from the Vienna Woods, left the audience with a lighthearted touch that rounded out the evening perfectly. At the end of the final piece, well over 1,500 people remained to cheer, yell bravos, and give their approval for the work of the symphony and to plea for continuation of the organization. 

The establishment of a permanent symphony was quick in coming, as local patrons of the arts successfully harnessed the momentum of the opening concert. On May 2, 1939, the Waco Symphony Society was born. Reiter led the symphony to perform for four splendid evenings a year for eleven seasons. In 1950, Reiter relinquished his role as conductor and left forthcoming seasons unplanned.  In 1961, after a decade of no symphony performances in the city, members of the Chamber of Commerce met with Daniel Sternberg, dean of the Baylor University School of Music to speak about reintroducing a symphony. On April 24, 1962, the Waco Symphony Association, Incorporated, was established. Patrons of the orchestra enjoyed the first season of the Waco Symphony as it put on three concerts, including a successful performance by Texas pianist Van Cliburn. Maestro Sternberg led the Waco Symphony Orchestra to success, putting on classical as well as pops concerts, accompanying musical guests, and leading the local debut of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. Sternberg conducted with energy until the end of the orchestra’s twenty-fifth season. For his farewell concert in 1986, Sternberg put on an all-Beethoven concert.  To build on the success of Sternberg, principal second Stephen Heyde, stepped in as conductor. Heyde pushed the musicians to their potential by adding extra rehearsals, and added more local musicians and faculty, and students of the Baylor music school to create an ensemble of which Waco could feel a sense of ownership. While under Heyde’s leadership, the Waco Symphony Orchestra founded the Waco Symphony Youth Orchestra to give young musicians of Central Texas opportunities to perform. Heyde led the Waco Symphony through their fifty-fifth season and continues to lead a group of musicians that breathe life into pieces of music.  Over the years, the Waco Symphony Orchestra has attracted world-class talents such as Frank Sinatra Jr., Art Garfunkel, and renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma to perform for the community. Many years of sold-out shows, holiday concerts, and subscription season performances have brought beauty and tranquility to audiences, and the ensemble continues to serve as a fixture in the cultural life of the community.

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Organized in 1866, New Hope Baptist Church is one of the oldest African American churches in Waco. Noted throughout its history for its excellent church music programs, New Hope is still a vibrant center of worship for Waco’s black community.

The end of the Civil War brought new freedoms to African Americans residing in Waco. Though blacks had previously been allowed limited worship opportunities at First Baptist Church of Waco, several African American congregants desired to use their increased postwar liberty to found a church of their own. Assisted by Baylor University President Rufus Burleson and First Baptist Pastor S. G. O’Bryan, eighteen black members of First Baptist formed a Missionary Baptist church on June 10, 1866. They named the church New Hope, a title befitting the spirit of optimism that fueled its establishment.

From humble beginnings, New Hope Baptist grew to become one of the more well-known African American congregations in Waco. The church first met in an old foundry building on the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Sixth Street, a dilapidated space the church rented for $2.00 a month. However, this space soon proved insufficient as New Hope’s numbers increased. In 1867, New Hope built its first church building, a humble box-shaped structure measuring thirty by forty feet, in partnership with a local Methodist church. Both groups shared the facility, holding services on alternating Sundays. That building did not last very long before it was torn down to make way for a school for African American youth from McLennan County. New Hope rented the school on Sunday mornings for services until 1873, when they were able to construct a modest wooden church structure at another location. In 1884, under the leadership of the church’s seventh pastor, a large two-story brick church was constructed for the still-growing church. This building served New Hope until the current church was built in 1923 at the corner of Sixth Street and Marlborough Avenue (now 915 North Sixth Street).

Over the years, New Hope Baptist benefited from the leadership of a dynamic pastorate. The church’s original pastor, Stephen Cobb, willingly served the church for eight years without a stipulated salary. Dr. J. Newton Jenkins, the pastor of New Hope from 1907 until 1950, is recognized as being the force that brought together a scattered and discouraged membership. In his first ninety days on the job, Jenkins was able to lead a fundraising effort that saw enough money raised to pay off all of the church’s debts. Jenkins’ successor, Dr. Marvin C. Griffin, was also a prolific pastor. Griffin pioneered a radio ministry and a citywide transportation system to the church on Sunday. He also strengthened the church’s ties with national, state, and local Baptist congregations.

New Hope Baptist was perhaps most well-known for its music programs. While the church had an informal choir as early as 1886, it wasn’t until 1895 that a structured music ministry was established under Dr. G.S. Conner and his wife Mattie. Thanks to the oversight of the Conners, by 1905 New Hope Baptist had a talented choir of forty trained voices to sing each Sunday. Soon thereafter in conjunction with students from Paul Quinn College, New Hope extended its music program to include a children’s choir and an orchestra. Dr. Conner presented at least one full-length operetta each year and cantatas at Christmas and Easter. Notable members of New Hope’s music ministry through the years include Jules Bledsoe, the grandson of Stephen Cobb and later an international opera star, and Vivienne Malone-Mayes, one of the first African Americans to receive an advanced degree in mathematics and the first African American professor at Baylor University.

From providing freed slaves with a sacred space of their own to empowering congregants through music, New Hope Baptist Church has worked for more than a century to lift black voices up in worship.

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