Waco History

UPDATED TOUR DATE!!!

Due to weather conditions, we rescheduled our walking tour for October 10th at 9:30 am. Register using the QR code below and share with your friends!

Our awesome tour hosts, Adrienne and Sylvia, got talk about the Hispanic Heritage Month Walking Tour with Foxx 44 this week.

Listen to their interview and learn more about the tour at the link below!

https://www.fox44news.com/news/local-news/mclennan-county/take-a-walk-and-discover-wacos-hispanic-history/ #/questions/5662210

Take a walk and discover Waco’s Hispanic history WACO, Texas (FOX 44) – Waco’s history isn’t just something you can read about – sometimes you can actually walk through it. Waco Walks is teaming up with Baylor’s Inst…

Join us for the Hispanic Heritage Walking Tour on October 3rd!

Sign up here: https://forms.gle/WMjYpT2KwrU3V9N86

Join Adrienne Cain Darough and Sylvia Hernandez on a walk from St. Francis Catholic Church through historic Calle Dos and Sandtown to learn about people, places, and events that continue to shape Waco’s Hispanic community.

October 3 at 9:30 a.m.

Sign up here: https://forms.gle/WMjYpT2KwrU3V9N86

25 years later, we pause to remember the innocent lives lost and the families, first responders, and survivors whose lives were forever changed by the events of 9/11.

Our friends at the Baylor University Institute for Oral History are hosting an online workshop for oral historians. Share with all of your oral history colleagues!

We are gearing up for another workshop!

Twice a year we host a workshop for beginners looking to learn more about the ins and outs of oral history and prep them for their future oral history projects. This is a great way to ask our team questions, get feedback, and learn alongside other oral historians.

Click the link below for more information.

https://library.web.baylor.edu/visit/institute-oral-history/workshops/getting-started-oral-history-workshop

Willie Durham House, an extraordinary person, devoted public servant, and gifted administrator, played a pivotal role in the establishment of two of Waco’s most essential institutions — free public schools and the Waco-McLennan County Library.

To read about her incredible story, visit our website at the link below.
https://wacohistory.org/items/show/264

On Juneteenth in 1865—the day’s name a combination of “June” and “nineteenth”—Union troops arrived in Galveston, bringing news of the emancipation established in January 1863. There, General Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”

Organized by freed Black people in Texas the following year, celebrations of Jubilee Day occurred throughout the state, including Waco. The earliest documented Waco celebration occurred in 1876, which included a two-thousand-person procession led by the Waco Colored Band and local societies, including the Rising Stars and the Young Men’s Club. The groups waved bright-colored banners and wore dazzling uniforms. The parade ended at Waco Creek, in the southern part of the city, where celebrants listened to various speakers and a reading of the Declaration of Independence. Afterward, they danced, sang, and ate together.

To read more about Waco's Juneteenth celebrations, visit our website at the link below:
https://wacohistory.org/items/show/224

We are sad to see this local business close, but we will always remember the legacy left behind! https://wacobridge.org/2026/06/09/circle-hardware-closing/

If you want to read more about the history of Circle Hardware, visit our website: https://wacohistory.org/items/show/180

Until the 1990s, hockey teams in the South were few and far between. The heat prevalent in the southern states did not exactly lend itself to ice-based sports, leading locals to favor warm-weather sports such as baseball and football. However, the National Hockey League’s (NHL’s) expansion teams began to gradually make their way further south throughout the 1990s, spreading a new interest in the sport.

In 1993, the expansion reached Texas when the Minnesota North Stars moved to Dallas, becoming the beloved Dallas Stars. With these new NHL teams came their minor league counterparts. The majority of these new minor league teams belonged to the Western Professional Hockey League (WPHL), which operated from 1996-2001 and stretched from New Mexico to Mississippi. In 1996, Waco became home to one of Texas’ five (soon to become eleven) WPHL teams, the Wizards.

To read the full story, click the link below:
https://wacohistory.org/items/show/253