Possibly the most recognizable names related to modern Waco, Chip and Joanna Gaineses’ Magnolia brand has become a draw for international tourists and a drastic wave of new growth. Their skyrocket to fame came through their HGTV show “Fixer Upper” in 2013 and have now been able to launch their own Magnolia Network. Their Magnolia Market at the Silos in downtown Waco on the corner of 8th Street and Webster Avenue is now a bustling location for shopping and their restaurant Magnolia Table on the Waco Traffic Circle is open for breakfast all day.
The first restaurant located in the building on the La Salle traffic circle has quite the history. The Elite Cafe was started by the four Colias brothers who had immigrated to Waco, Texas from Sparta, Greece in the early part of the 20th century. Their original location for their restaurant was on Austin Avenue downtown. It quickly became a community favorite and was known as the first location in the city to install an air conditioner in 1935. By 1941 the brothers decided to expand and opened the La Salle location that sat right along one of the main artery roads that traveled through town. Tourists would often stop and enjoy the good food on their way to and from Dallas and Austin. After the destruction of the 1953 tornado, the downtown location of the Elite Cafe closed and the one on the traffic circle remained a success. Struggling to maintain the building with less traffic by 1986, the brothers sold it to restauranteur David Tinsley and his partner Sammy Citrano for $1.3 million. A year later the Elite featured a retro ’50s theme and once again was enjoyed as a local eatery. In 1996 Tinsley retraced the history of the restaurant and applied to have the historical marker placed out front to celebrate its meaning to Waco. After another decline, the Elite Cafe was sold to Ford Restaurant Group and another slow period of change began. The Ford Group restored the building to its former Spanish style and honored its first appeal. It reopened in 2003 as the Elite Circle Grille and closed again in 2016. The final purchase was made by Chip and Joanna Gaines and reopened in its current iteration as Magnolia Table in 2018.
Though the building has had a rather tumultuous amount of change, renovation, and transfer of ownership over the course of its history, Magnolia Table represents a very iconic restaurant that mirrored the often rough development of its community. The current style of the building has much of the same spirit as the old even if it is not a perfect line for line match for restoration. This is largely due to the earlier designation and historical marker. This helped to limit the number of changes that could be made, such as maintaining the Spanish tiling of the roof. Being able to keep that particular detail is a great example of how protections can be applied to historic properties through policy. It was a very identifying feature of the first style that it was restored to and altering it again after the fact would decrease its accuracy. Another very positive aspect of the site’s development is that it has always been maintained as a restaurant. If possible according to historic preservation ideology, if the original purpose of the building can also be continued, that presents the best-case scenario as it connects it to the previous history and requires little change.
The Second Presbyterian Church built in 1893 and located at 510 North 13th Street was one of the oldest churches in the city. It was designed in the Queen Anne style and an entirely wood construction, setting it apart from many of the other brick and stone churches in Waco. Its beautiful stained glass windows were also a defining feature with a simple cross hanging on the front facade between the panes. In the 1920s the church changed congregations to become a Seventh-Day Adventist Church and from 1964 to 1989 it was non-denominational as the Waco Community Church. A radio preacher named German P. “Dixie Fireball” Comer led the latter. The last group to occupy the building was the New Beginnings Church in the early 2000s. A local Waco architect, Sterling Thomas bought the building in 2009 and planned to turn it into a rental wedding venue but was unsuccessful due to the major work needed for the structure. The Gainses obtained ownership in 2017. Already designated as a historic landmark, the Waco Historic Landmark Preservation Commission approved a certificate of appropriateness for the church to be carefully deconstructed and rebuilt on the Magnolia Market site. They strongly recommended that certain aspects of the structure be saved and maintained to keep as much historical integrity as possible in the transition. In the end, certain aspects of the church were salvaged and the rest demolished. The reconstruction was completed on the new site in November of 2020 and the church is used as a space for peace and reflection.
Unfortunately, this is a case study example of a much heavier critique and cannot be recommended as a methodology to follow. In the sense of best practices for historic preservation and adaptive reuse, the result was essentially the desired opposite and the ultimate situation to prevent. First, moving a structure away from its natural first context is usually avoided as much as possible unless it is one of the only viable ways to save it. The environment for a historic property can almost be as critical as the building itself as it can say much about what influenced its construction, utility, and the people who built it. The church would lose its historic landmark designation due to the move but had the potential to possibly be reinstated afterward due to Waco’s particular interpretation of policy. However, as the Old Church now stands, it can no longer qualify as it has not maintained enough of its historical integrity during the process. Second, the Commission did its job by giving specific recommendations about how key features might have been saved but they were not heeded. For example, the stained glass windows were a very important aspect of the style and structure of the church. In the end, they were deemed too much of an expense to restore by Magnolia and not one of the features that were saved for the final reconstruction. Thirdly, intentions were carried out to salvage reusable parts but the end product was largely new construction built to the exact dimensions of the original plans with those few original pieces added on. Though they had a decent amount of documentation and historic research to replicate the building, not utilizing as much of the actual structure hurts its integrity as a truly historic property. It is a detriment to knock down the old just to reconstruct it elsewhere. Though reconstruction is also a method for historic preservation, it is typically only used when the initial building has been lost entirely or vital parts are missing and need to be rebuilt. This particular case completed it in a rather backward fashion. In the end, the Old Church really cannot be considered historic preservation.