Waco, Texas: The Heart of Texas

Texas is a big state. I can drive for 8 hours in most any direction and still be in Texas. But that's okay because Texas has a lot to see. If you drive down I-35 for about an hour and half from Dallas, you are right smack dab in the middle of Waco. If I've driven through Waco once, I've driven through a hundred times. This time, we stopped.

Waco sits on the Brazos River, the 14th longest river in Texas, and is the county seat of McLennan County. The county is named for Neil McLennan, a Scotsman who acquired a league of land in 1838 from Empresario Sterling Robertson. When Jacob de Cordoba bought the land in 1849, he had Texas Ranger, George Erath survey it and laid out the initial streets. The town was named Waco for the Indians that lived there first.

McLennan County has had several courthouses. The first was built in 1850. It was a two-story log cabin. It didn't last long. By 1856, they needed something bigger so they built another courthouse. This one was not built well structurally. In 1877, this courthouse was built. It was located at Franklin and 2nd Street. By 1900, this courthouse also became too small. The building was sold and was the home to Crow Brothers Steam Laundry. By 1926, the building had been demolished.

In 1901, the fourth McLennan County Courthouse was built and is still in use today. In 1930, Clyde Barrow (of Bonnie & Clyde fame) stood trial here on numerous charges of burglary and theft. In 1955, the first murder trial to be televised was held in this beautiful courthouse.

In 1869, the Waco Suspension Bridge was built, the first bridge to cross the Brazos River. It started out as a toll bridge, charging for foot traffic, carriages, and if you were sending your cattle across, you were charged five cents per head. Prior to the bridge, a ferry was used to cross the river.

Another view of the Waco Suspension Bridge. In 1889, the bridge was sold to the county and it became a free bridge. Today, it's a pedestrian bridge and a great way to get a lovely view of the Brazos River.

This is the Alico building. This 22-story building was erected in 1911 for the Amicable Life Insurance Company. In 1958, it survived an F5 tornado that hit downtown Waco and demolished a good part of the city. The American-Amicable Life Insurance Company is still the tenant in this building.

Waco is known for a lot of things and one of them is the birthplace of Dr Pepper. In 1885, there was a pharmacy on this spot, Morrison's Old Corner Drug Store. This is back when pharmacists actually mixed your medicines. 

In 1906, this building was erected at 5th and Mary Streets as an Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company. There's an actual well inside the building on the first floor where the water was drawn and used to bottle Dr Pepper. They continued bottling the soft drink here until about 1965 when the company moved to a more modern facility. It sat vacant until 1988 when it was donated for a museum.

The museum opened in 1991. On the first floor is a replica of the Old Corner Drug Store where Dr Pepper was invented. There's also a timeline of the invention of soft drinks in general. Did you know Coca Cola was invented by a guy who was trying to cure his morphine addiction?

This is the Kellum Rotan Building. They were wholesale grocers that were originally located on the other side of the Brazos River. They moved to this building in 1882 to take advantage of the proximity to the railroad. The building is now part of the Dr Pepper Museum. Inside is an old fashioned soda fountain. At the end of your tour, you can get a free drink. If you just want the drink, the soda fountain is open to the public. You just have to buy it.

Another fabulous museum in Waco is the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame and Museum. It gives the history of the Texas Rangers, warts and all. 

For a long time, Waco was known for the disaster related to the Branch Davidians. In 1993, a religious group led by David Koresh lived in a compound about 13 miles outside of Waco. They were suspected of stockpiling weapons so the ATF got a warrant and they were going to raid the camp. The Davidians were tipped off and it became a gun battle instead. After 51 days, tear gas was tossed into the camp. It just went downhill from there. A lot of people died, including children.

Then in 2013, locals Chip and Joanna Gaines started a show called "Fixer Upper". They would fix up old houses in Waco and the world was fascinated. These are the Silos in Waco. Back when cotton was king, the owners of the silos would press the cottonseeds to extract the oil and the oil was stored in the silos. That business went under in the 1990s. Chip and Joanna bought them in 2014.

The put their Magnolia stamp on them and turned the whole area into a tourist attraction. The complex houses the Magnolia Home, the Magnolia Press where you can get coffee and the Silos Bakery where you can get treats.

The Gaines' changed the perception of Waco by "renovating" the town. This building, for example, was built in 1928 for the Grand Karem Shriners, a Masonic group that used this building until 1995. It was sold to the county who then used some of it for office space. In 2018, Chip and Joanna partnered with an equity company and converted this building to a luxury boutique hotel called Hotel 1928. It has 33 rooms, a restaurant and a bar.

In addition to all the museums, Waco is also home to Baylor University. The photo is not mine. We had so much other stuff to do, we ran out of time. Having said that, Waco is truly a college town. We stayed downtown in June after classes let out and there was nothing going on. Walking around at night, we had the place practically to ourselves. The museums were pretty empty, except the Dr Pepper museum. Baylor University, named for R. E. B. Baylor, was originally in Independence, Texas. In 1845, it merged with Waco University and it settled here in Waco. It's a private Baptist University.

McClane Stadium, right on the Brazos River.

I liked Waco. It was a big enough city that it had all your chain restaurants, fast food and grocery stores but small enough to have that small town feel. It's called the "heart of Texas" because of its central location. There are 138,500 people that live there. The biggest employers in town are Baylor University, of course, Ascension, Waco ISD, H-E-B, and Baylor Scott & White.

If you're passing through and you have the time, stop and check it out! I think you'll be surprised.