Waco State Home

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do it justice. Way back in 1919, the 36th Texas Legislature made a decision. They looked at the dependent and neglected children of this state and said: we're going to do something about that.

So they established a state home, right there in Waco, built to give those children care, training, and education. It took a few years to get the doors open, but in 1922, the place that would come to be known as the Waco State Home officially welcomed its first residents. Now, where they built it matters.

They set it on a hill that overlooked the city of Waco, on land that had once been part of Camp MacArthur, an Army training camp from the early part of the twentieth century. From that hill, you could see the whole city spread out below. Two brick dormitories went up first, built to house the children, with more facilities added as the need arose.

And the need did arise. By the late 1930s, enrollment had climbed to nearly four hundred children living on that campus. Houseparents were there to provide supervision, to keep watch over the place, to make it something that resembled a home.

The campus ran its own Independent School District, handling the education of those children right there on site, and that arrangement held until the mid-1950s. They also worked a farm on the property, and that farm carried real weight. It produced dairy products, vegetables, and livestock feed, much of the food that kept those hundreds of children fed.

That's not a footnote, that's a lifeline. The Waco State Home kept its doors open and its mission alive until 1979, when the facility was closed. Decades of children passed through that place, children who had nowhere else to go, and many of them went on to become active citizens of communities throughout the state.

That hill above Waco held something that doesn't always make the history books: a quiet, steady effort to give the forgotten a fighting chance.

What the marker says

In 1919, the 36th Texas Legislature established a "state home for dependent and neglected children" in Waco to provide these children with care, training, and education. The Waco State Home, as it later was renamed, officially opened in 1922. Located on a hill that then overlooked the city of Waco, the campus was situated on land that had been part of Camp MacArthur, an early 20th Century Army training camp. Two brick dormitories were constructed to house the children, although additional facilities were built as needed. During the late 1930s, enrollment reached nearly 400 children. Houseparents provided supervision for those who lived on campus. Until the mid-1950s, the Waco State Home operated as an Independent School District to provide an education for dependent and neglected children. The home also managed a farm on the property, producing much of the food consumed by the residents. Its yields included dairy products, vegetables, and livestock feed. Until 1979, when the facility was closed, the Waco State Home provided care, training, and education to hundreds of needy children during their formative years, many of its former students have become active citizens of communities throughout the state. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986