Just as the Great Depression was dawning, Waco Hall was built by the citizens of Waco as a sign of good faith between the city and the university that had called it home since 1886.

Baylor University was being wooed by the big money moguls of Dallas in the spring of 1928.

Boosters there had made trustees an offer they felt they could not refuse — some $1.5 million in cash and land to make the relocation.

Waco Hall as photographed by Fred A. Gildersleeve (1881-1958). Gildersleeve was the city's premier commercial photographer of the first half of the 20th century.
Texas Collection at Baylor University

So the education commission of the Baptist General Convention of Texas voted 13-2 to move 100 miles north of Central Texas.

The main dissenter was Chairman of the Board Pat Neff, an 1894 graduate, former state governor and future Baylor president.

Fight to keep university

Many locals were still smarting from the loss of Texas Christian University, which moved to Fort Worth in 1910 after a devastating fire. The idea of allowing Baylor to fold its tents as well was too much for Waco civic pride.

Business leaders and municipal officials quickly mounted a joint task force (the Greater Baylor campaign) with university administrators to persuade Texas Baptists to leave Baylor in the heart of Texas.

Waco’s ultimately successful argument was that it would provide $1 million to the university during the course of seven years if Texas Baptists could do the same.

As part of that pledge, task force leaders said, the first $400,000 raised ($5 million in 2010 dollars) would be made available immediately to erect a grand auditorium on campus. The university had been making do with makeshift quarters for chapel since the Carroll Library fire of 1922.

The commission accepted Waco’s counter, and plans began for what would be dubbed Waco Hall.

1st major donation

The first $100,000 was donated by Herbert Lee Kokernot (1867-1949), described by some historians as “the dean of modern-day ranching in Texas.”

The rancher/merchant was founder and president of the Baptist Foundation of Texas, through which he provided support for Baylor and other Baptist institutions in Texas. His leadership gift was matched by four of his business associates.

Baylor officials broke ground for Waco Hall on June 25, 1929, pouring a special bag of cement into the foundation from the brand new Atlas Portland Cement plant that had opened in Waco just a day before. The dedication took place only 13 months later on May 27, 1930.

The man in the hat was Samuel Palmer Brooks (1863-1931), president of the university since 1902. The beloved “Prexy,” as he was known by students, was already in declining health from cancer when Waco Hall was dedicated the next year. He hung in for almost another year but died days before spring commencement in May 1931.
Texas Collection at Baylor University

President Brooks’ role

Samuel Palmer Brooks, Baylor president since 1902, shepherded the project.

Often quoted and remembered for encouraging students to “take the long look” into their future, Brooks’ own days were numbered. The beloved “Prexy,” as he was known, died of cancer on May 14, 1931, two weeks short of the spring commencement.

Designed as a multipurpose theater complete with a box office, stage, orchestra pit, seating for 2,500 with balcony, as well as a lobby that could hold 500, Waco Hall became the home for graduation ceremonies and chapel, the mandatory Christian devotionals of the students, staff and faculty of that era.

But through the years, Waco Hall also made a name for itself as a venue of higher culture in Central Texas.

Range of artists, speakers

For example, it has hosted performances by musicians as diverse as Itzhak Perlman, Van Cliburn and Isaac Stern, to the 1940s jazz of Dizzy Gillespie and Ella Fitzgerald, and the ’50s freshness of Doris Day.

The 1960s and ’70s brought Waylon Jennings; Blood, Sweat and Tears; Bachman-Turner Overdrive; John Denver; and Captain and Tennille.

Christian recording artists like Amy Grant performed on the same stage that would later hold Tom Jones.

Movie stars such as Claude Rains, Katherine Hepburn, Helen Hayes, Sir Charles Laughton, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour all spoke from the stage of Waco hall.

Political potentates such as First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, U.S. presidents Harry Truman and Gerald Ford, Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson and California Gov. Ronald Reagan made appearances as well.

Poets Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg read at the lectern under the auspices of English Department chief A.J. Armstrong.

In the modern era, Waco Hall still hosts many campus and community events, activities that bring together “townies” and campus dwellers alike. 

Sources: The Texas Collection at Baylor University, Handbook of Texas Online, Baylor.edu.

tjryan@wacotrib.com

757-5746

A collection of programs featuring some of the entertainment that occurred in Waco Hall in its first 80 years shows a diversity of tastes and genres. From Passion plays, family dramas, slapstick comedies, concert pianists, Cossack dancers and country music hoedowns, the great hall has played host to events that drew townies and Baylorites together like nothing else.
Terri Jo Ryan photo