Waco was “Bush Country” long before the arrival of the Connecticut-born, Yale-educated 43rd president of the United States.

Almost a century earlier, another Bush founded an engineering, architectural and construction dynasty that continues to the present day.

ames Monroe Bush was born in 1873 in Choctaw County, Ala. He and his bride moved to Waco in 1896, and had six children.

He supported his family as a house carpenter until 1915, when he became a general contractor. His first large-scale project was constructing the facilities — mostly mess halls — at Camp MacArthur in 1917. Designed to accommodate 3,000 soldiers in training, the camp eventually housed more than 25,000 of them.

After WWI, Bush became general contractor for the Waco State Home, which occupied much of the former military installation’s site.

He is credited with building the city’s first apartment building, Palm Court, located in the 1900 block of Austin Avenue. He also reportedly crafted the first motel west of the Mississippi River, the Alamo Plaza Tourist Court on Elm Street. J.M. Bush retired in 1935, and died in 1940 at age 67.

His son, John William “Bill” Bush (1917-2002), attended Rice University and graduated in 1939 with honors in civil engineering. In 1945, he and his wife, Waco native Lucille Acker, returned to Waco, where he joined the Harry L. Spicer firm as a structural engineer.

His first project was the Bird-Kultgen Ford dealership at 12th Street and Franklin Avenue, and he did all the drafting and engineering for the Waco Tribune-Herald building at Ninth Street and Franklin. In 1949 he was named a full partner with Spicer, who retired in 1953.

Architect James D. Witt, who had joined the firm in 1950, became Bush’s partner in 1953, and together they designed Lake Air Junior High, Richfield High (now Waco High), the Central Library on 17th Street and Austin Avenue, and Westview Shopping Center, among other projects.

Bill Bush continued in the trade, working with two other partners, until retiring in 1986.

His son, James Earl “Jim” Bush, was born in Waco in 1942 and graduated from Waco High in 1961. In his early teens, his first “job” in the family business was digging the basement of the old Baylor University Science Building.

James Bush graduated from Texas Tech University in 1967. In 1969, he and his wife, Marty, moved to Waco so that he could work with his father’s company.

In 1975, he followed his grandfather’s footsteps by becoming a general contractor, forming the Bush Building Corp. He has been the District V city councilman for Waco since May 2005.

Although his son, J. Bradley Bush, joined the family firm in 1992 and perpetuated the dynasty for a time, the younger Bush has since moved to the Metroplex to pursue his interests in computers and consulting.

“Unless we can get any of the grandchildren interested in the company, the Bush family legacy of building Waco ends with us, I guess,” said Jim’s wife, Marty Bush.

Sources: Marty Bush, Rootsweb.Ancestry.com, BushBuilding.com