By Geoff Hunt, Audio and Visual Curator, The Texas Collection, Baylor University. 

Texas has changed quite a bit over the years, as is readily seen in our vast photograph and postcard collections. To help bring some of those changes to life, we’ve created a “Texas over Time” blog series that will illustrate the construction and renovations of buildings, street scenes, and more. Our collections are especially strong on Waco and Baylor images, but look for some views beyond the Heart of Texas, too.

Located on 219 South Fourth Street, Waco, Texas, the Behrens Lofts now occupies what was once known as the Behrens Drug Company building. The structure was completed in 1913, and was headquarters for the Behrens Drug Company. Earlier locations for the company were Fourth and Washington (1891-1896) and Third and Mary Streets (1896-1914), Waco. The company was founded by Dr. Herman Behrens. According to the Waco-News Tribune, April 19, 1925, Dr. Behrens was born in Seehide, Germany, on February 20, 1852. He moved to the U.S. as a child with his parents, and came to Paris, Texas, in 1874, to begin work in the drug industry. He came to Waco in 1878, to continue this trade and helped operate a firm called Behrens and Moser. After operating this company for a few years, he returned to Germany but came back to Waco again to help form another drug company called Behrens and Castles. In 1891, The Behrens Drug Company was incorporated. On December 17, 1905, Dr. Behrens died. However, Dr. W.R. Clifton soon became the company’s president and held this position for many years and the company achieved great success despite its founders’ passing.

 As a wholesale company, the firm sold “drugs, beauty products, talking machines, cigars, sundries, soda fountains, store fixtures, and more, to smaller business. Additionally, it even manufactured medicines in-house for a short time in the 1920’s. In the Waco-News Tribune, April 30, 1922, the company ambitiously states: “there is not an article in the drug dictionary which the Behrens Drug Company does not handle.” Another product sold was called Mrs. McCormick’s Beauty Cream, “popularized by the Behrens Drug Company from the hands of its originator, a Waco woman, who years ago sold it from house to house…” In 1925, Behrens Drug Company employed 68 people, and supplied goods across the state. In the 1940’s and 1950’s, Behrens expanded to include locations in both Lubbock and Tyler, Texas. The Clifton family continued the presidency of this company with Albert C. Clifton, and the company’s last president, William Lacy Clifton serving until the Behrens company was bought out by Cardinal Health in 1994. 

The “Then in circa 1920” picture in the image sequence below shows: the Behrens Drug Company building, located at 219 South Fourth Street, Waco, Texas. Photographer, Fred Gildersleeve, General Photo File, The Texas Collection, Baylor University. Same view of building but now Behrens Lofts in 2020 by GH.

Works Sourced:

“Behrens Drug Company Rounds Out 40 Years of Service in Waco,” The Waco-News Tribune, April 19, 1925.

“Waco Has It,” The Waco-News Tribune, April 30, 1922.

Waco Chamber of Commerce News, July-September 1926, The Texas Collection, Baylor University.

November is National Aviation History Month! According to the Government Printing Office, the month is “dedicated to exploring, recognizing and celebrating America’s great contributions and achievements in the development of aviation. Aviation history refers to the history of development of mechanical flight — from the earliest attempts in kites and gliders to powered heavier-than-air, supersonic and space flights.” This post explores the history of Army Air Fields in Texas using items from our holdings.

Written by Rachel DeShong, Map Curator and Coordinator for the Heart of Texas Regional History Fair

On December 8, 1941, the day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war on Japan. Immediately, the United States government embarked on expanding their military operations as quickly as possible. These efforts included both recruitment and the building of new military installations. Texas offered ideal conditions for military installations as there was plenty of land and relatively warm climate year-around. When World War II ended, there were a total of 65 army air fields[1] in the state of Texas alone.[2] These air fields not only infused the local communities with some much needed income, but also brought in a large influx of young men and women from across the country.

To commemorate their training experiences, air field personnel created souvenir booklets, yearbooks, and postcards. The booklets and yearbooks (called “mug books”) were composed almost entirely of photographs and documented the lives of the cadets rather than the history of the air field. Only a few examples include any historical element, and those that do are very brief. Images depicting physical activity, daily messes, and classrooms were common. The yearbooks shared similar styles with high school yearbooks with elaborate covers and individual photographs of each cadet along with their name, their hometown, and sometimes their aviator call sign. One such yearbook in our collection from the Pampa Army Air Field includes the embossed name of the cadet on the front cover and signatures like those one would find in a typical high school yearbook.

These materials also provide a sneak peek into the cadets’ personal lives. Often included in these books are humorous drawings and captions with inside jokes. Others document the various extracurricular activities that the cadets participated in including sports, listening to music, and reading. Several even include images of their camp mascots which, contrary to what one might expect, tended to be furry, cute, and cuddly. The Amarillo Army Air Field claimed two puppies, a kitten, and a fawn as their post mascots. Other details hint at the romantic lives of the cadets such as the wedding photograph of an unidentified couple from the Blackland Army Air Field or the numerous illustrations referencing the cadets’ perpetual lack of female companionship. Some books also contain a section dedicated to the memory of cadets who died during training. While providing valuable historic insight to training and military installations, these resources help to humanize the pilots and remind us that they were just like us.

This blog post was written by Student Assistant Morgan Ballard. Morgan is a Senior Anthropology major in her second year at The Texas Collection. She assisted processing the L. L. Sams Stained Glass Studio records.

The words “stained glass” typically elicit the image of large, brightly colored, religious depictions in a church or temple sanctuary. However, these religious buildings are not the only places one can find such pieces of immaculate glass work. Stained glass companies have worked on both religious and secular themed glass for many years. A good example of this versatility is the work done by L.L. Sams Stained Glass Studio. The Studio operated as a division of the L. L. Sams Company in Waco, Texas, from 1952 until its closing in 1992. The studio produced many pieces for numerous churches as well as secular and semi-religious places that stained glass might not be expected.

In the 1960s secular stained glass became more popular in America. During this time, restaurants began commissioning glass signs and decorative pieces which included restaurant names, still life scenes, and other abstract designs. The L. L. Sams collection holds items from two restaurants, Oliver’s in Odessa, Texas, and Mac’s Driveteria in Abilene, Texas. In addition to businesses, there was also a rise in residential stained glass. These windows were very diverse in style and included designs ranging from abstract patterns to heavily detailed scenery. For example, two residential commissions in the L.L. Sams collection are for a, relatively large, nature scene and an abstract design respectively. Although the trend of residential stained glass has declined in recent years you can still find many houses where it was installed in use today. Surprisingly, institutions such as public schools have commissioned pieces. La Vega High School in Bellmead, Texas, is a good example as they have a large window of the school’s pirate mascot that was commissioned in 1984.

Some places, although secular in nature, occasionally have religious themes and areas associated with them. Hospitals, specifically in this collection, had the second most commissions behind churches. Most of the pieces were commissioned for the chapel, or another religious area, of the hospital in which they reside. While most of the pieces for these hospitals have religious themes, there are also many abstract pieces made in conjunction with them. A few of the hospitals in the L.L. Sams collection include Coryell Memorial Hospital in Gatesville, Texas, and Graham General Hospital in Graham, Texas. Mausoleums also account for a good portion of commissions to L.L. Sams. For example, Restland Mausoleum in Dallas, Texas, placed many commissions for both religious and abstract pieces. Military bases including Bergstrom Air Force Base, Lackland Air Force Base, and Fort Hood also commissioned pieces. The most impressive of these are from Fort Hood and reside in the main chapel on base. These windows have religious symbols and figures, such as crosses and Jesus, alongside images of soldiers and other military emblems. All these pieces are large and finely detailed, taking up most of each wall they reside on.

Universities and Colleges have also commissioned stained glass. Baylor University, although a Christian school, has primarily commissioned secular stained glass. The largest collection on campus, and possibly in the world, is in the Armstrong Browning Library with a total of 62 windows. Most of the windows depict poems by Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Only one window, the “Cleon”, was made by L.L. Sams. This piece is housed in one of the third-floor offices and, unfortunately, is not open to the public. It can, however, be seen via the Armstrong Browning Library website (https://www.baylor.edu/browninglibrary/index.php?id=942971). This window centers around the poem “Cleon” by Robert Browning and depicts the columns of Baylor’s first campus at Independence, Texas, along with state specific imagery such as mockingbirds, yellow roses, and red honeysuckle. L. L. Sams also created pieces for Burleson Hall, Old Main, and Bennett Auditorium. These pieces, which commemorate past Baylor presidents, can be found above the doorways of each building’s exterior doors. These simply patterned windows contain the name of the president it is honoring and the dates which they served at Baylor.

Although L.L. Sams Stained Glass Studio is no more, and in its place stands an apartment complex of the same name, their work still stands in many places. The commissions mentioned above are only a small fraction of the work they completed. Many more concept pieces and documents are housed in The Texas Collection archives.

“History of Stained Glass.” The Stained Glass Association of America. Accessed October 08, 2020. https://stainedglass.org/resources/history-of-stained-glass/.

The Texas Collection posts newly accessible resources each month. If you have any questions or would like to use these materials, please let us know and we would be happy to assist!

Finding Aids

• Sandra Hancock Trenwith Martin papers #591
  • The Sandra Trenwith Hancock Martin papers consist of letters from her time as a student at Baylor University and a memoir Rape in the Prayer Room.
• Texas Civil War Centennial Commission records #1006
  • The Texas Civil War Centennial Commission records contain correspondence, reports, and agendas produced by the Commission in preparation for the 1961-1965 commemoration of the Civil War. Also included is a copy of the joint resolution passed by the U.S. Congress establishing the Commission.
• Alvah A. Torrance papers #3085
  • The Alvah Allen Torrance papers highlight his work with the Amicable Life Insurance Company and its merger with American Life Insurance Company. Travel notebooks, correspondence, photographs, and several publications are included. Also included are slides of his work as an amateur photographer.
• Harris County Club for United Southern Action letter #1714
  • The Harris County Club for United Southern Action collection contains a letter from J.H.H. Woodward to George Whiting describing the formation and intentions of the Harris County Club for United Southern Action and expressing strong anti-secession sentiment.
• Pauline Breustedt collection #1832
  • The Pauline Breustedt collection documents the life and travels of a Waco resident from 1917 to 1969. Items of interest include scrapbooks, post cards, news clippings, and photographs of her personal interests, acting career, and travels.
• Joseph Sheppard Barnett, Jr. papers #499
  • The Joseph Sheppard Barnett, Jr., papers contain letters, documents, and publications that relate to Barnett’s time in the armed forces during World War I and World War II, including many military documents from his time overseeing training at Camp Howze, Texas.
• [Waco] Jefferson-Moore High School Parent Teacher Association records #2876
  • The [Waco] Jefferson-Moore High School Parent Teacher Association records document the involvement of the organization and outline their purpose, goals, and projects in relation to the school. Meeting minutes, including officers, programs, and financial reports, can be found in addition to newsletters and student directories.

maps

Two new additions to the map collection are Phelps & Watson’s Historical and Military Map of the Border and Southern States (1863) and J.H. Colton’s Map of the Southern States (1864). Produced during the American Civil War, these maps offer a unique perspective because they focus explicitly on the geography of the Confederacy. Phelps & Watson’s Historical and Military Map of the Border and Southern States includes a booklet that provides detailed information on 100 battle. On the map itself, markings are used to indicate battle sites. Two of these, Galveston and Sabine City, are located in Texas.

The Texas Collection posts newly accessible resources each month. If you have any questions or would like to use these materials, please let us know and we would be happy to assist!

Finding Aids

• Alice Owens Caufield papers #3567
  • The Alice Owens Caufield papers contain the personal papers of Caufield, including speeches, research, and programs from African-American church and civic events primarily held in Waco, Texas.
• First Street Cemetery Memorial Advisory Committee records #570
  • The First Street Cemetery Memorial Advisory Committee records contain the working files of the First Street Cemetery Memorial Advisory Committee, a committee to support the work of the City of Waco, Texas Historical Commission, and other groups in their work on the First Street Cemetery of Waco, Texas.
• Sons of the Southern Confederacy: Joseph H. Jenkins Chapter records #348
  • The Sons of the Southern Confederacy: Joseph H. Jenkins Chapter records contain a program from a 1902 veterans memorial service in McGregor, Texas, a photograph of a descendant of a veteran, and some poetry about the veterans.
• Franklin Harrold Bulmahn papers #3386
  • The Franklin Harrold Bulmahn papers contain the materials of Waco resident Franklin Harrold Bulmahn, mainly documenting his service in the United States Navy during World War II.
• Woman’s Club of Waco records #225
  • The [Waco] Woman’s Club records contain administrative records and meeting minutes of the organization from 1897–1949, as well as yearbooks and scrapbooks from 1907–1974. Also included are materials related to the Waco Federation of Clubs, and various related organizations.

As the sounds of jackhammers echo throughout campus, it is difficult to ignore the ongoing renovation of the Tidwell Bible Building. On April 25, 2019, Baylor University announced a $15 million dollar gift from the Sunderland Foundation of Overland Park, Kansas dedicated to the Tidwell restoration fund.[1] Less than a year later, the Baylor Board of Regents approved a total budget cost of $21.2 million for the project.[2] The work began this summer and is projected to be completed in 2022.

Under construction from 1953 to 1954, the Tidwell Bible Building was named after the esteemed Dr. Josiah Blake Tidwell (1870–1946), former head of the Baylor Bible department, which later become the Department of Religion. Initially conceived in 1936 by former students of Dr. Tidwell, the building was a permanent homage to him as well as a physical representation of the significance of the Bible. Originally designed as a ten-story building with a “wall of light”, a more modest six-story building was ultimately built. The history of the building, what could have been, and what was, is a story often told. But how does one pay for a structure such as Tidwell? Therein lies an interesting tale…

The short answer is churches. According to a Certificate of Payment to Leslie Crocket Construction Co., the cost to physically build Tidwell was $590,000.[3] (Considering inflation, that is an estimated $5,682,884 in today’s money.) Looking at the records of the Tidwell Bible Building Campaign Committee, it becomes very clear that Baptist churches throughout the state were major contributors to the building fund. Appealing to districts defined by the Baptist General Convention of Texas, churches of all sizes were solicited. For example, in 1944,  First Baptist-Elm Mott donated $75, while Columbus Avenue Baptist Church donated $2,112.14 between 1944 and 1946 including amounts as low as $2.05.[4] In spite of the Great Depression and World War II, by January 31, 1947, a total of $121,988.70 was raised.[5] This amount, however, would not be enough.

In 1947, in an effort to raise the necessary funds, the Tidwell Bible Building Committee, in collaboration with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, approved a large-scale fundraising campaign. Setting an ambitious goal of $500,000, the committee “felt that the individual person approach was the best approach” to achieve said goal.[6] Again, using the BGCT districts, the campaign focused mainly on churches and their membership. The Executive Committee minutes from their February 4, 1947 described the concerted effort thus:

“A plan whereby a solicitor from each church would contact members of his church, and ask them to fill out a pledge card, and select the plan of giving to the Bible Building Campaign Fund. These pledge cards would be sent to the churches all over the state and would be followed up by public appeals in sermons, and then presented to the members by a committee of solicitors.”[7]

To oversee the fundraising campaign, Brother O.D. Martin from District 3 was employed full-time. [8] Setting monetary goals for each district to raise, he reported that “$515,000 worth of goals has been accepted by districts, churches, and association over the state.”[9] The ledgers from 1947 and 1948 reveal churches from all over the state donating various amounts. First Baptist-El Paso donated $10 on September 9, 1947, while First Baptist-Amarillo donated over $3,000 between 1947 to 1949 usually in $100 payments.[10] The concentrated effort paid off and by September 30, 1951, the building fund raised $628,665.02 (a little over $6 million in today’s money).[11] Of course, not all donations came from churches. There were a significant number of individual donors in addition to Baylor University agreeing to contribute $100,000. However, it is undeniable that Baptist churches across Texas played an important role in making Tidwell Bible Building a reality.

[1] “Baylor Announces $15 Million Gift from The Sunderland Foundation for Tidwell Restoration,” Media and Public Relations | Baylor University, April 25, 2019, accessed August 27, 2020, https://www.baylor.edu/mediacommunications/news.php?action=story&story=209144.

[2]“Baylor Regents Celebrate Groundbreaking of the Mark and Paula Hurd Welcome Center, Approve Final Phase of $21.2 Million Renovation of Tidwell Bible Building,” Media and Public Relations | Baylor University, February 24, 2020, accessed August 27, 2020, https://www.baylor.edu/mediacommunications/news.php?action=story&story=217369.

[3] BU Records: Tidwell Bible Building Campaign Committee, Accession #BU/169, Box 2, Folder 22, The Texas Collection, Baylor University.

[4] Ibid., Box 1, Folder 10.

[5] Ibid., Box 1, Folder 1.

[6] Ibid., Box 1, Folder 3.

[7] Ibid., Box 1, Folder 2.

[8] Ibid., Box 1, Folder 1.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Ibid., Box 1 Folder 18.

[11] Ibid., Box 2, Folder 2

This piece by former Texas Collection director Kent Keeth was originally published in The Baylor Line in January 1990. Blogging About Texas periodically features selections from Looking Back at Baylor, with hopes of sharing Keeth’s work with a new audience.

 As Baylor prepares for a shortened and socially distanced football season due to COVID-19, McLane Stadium will host the fewest number of fans since its opening in 2014. Capacity for McLane is listed at 45,140, the 25% allowed this season is only 11,285. The last time max capacity for Baylor Football was so low, the Bears played at Carroll Field which held about 12,000 fans during the 1930s. Read on to learn more about the legacy of Carroll Field.

Harvard has its ‘Soldiers Field,’ . . . Princeton its ‘Franklin Field’ and Baylor will have its ‘Lee Carroll Field,”’ boasted the Lariat on January 17, 1902. The campus newspaper was reporting an offer made to the university’s Athletic Association by athletics business manager Lee Carroll, who challenged students to raise $600 in order to receive his matching gift of $1,000 toward the creation of a sports arena.

At the turn of the century, when collegiate athletics were only just becoming established in Texas, specialized facilities for them were still relatively rare. At the time of Carroll’s offer, Baylor football was played on vacant lots where grass was minimal, weeds were rampant, and sandburs provided a powerful incentive to avoid being tackled. The designation of a purpose-built athletics facility would not only raise the school’s standards of competition, but would also give Baylor bragging rights relative to its peer institutions.

The university community responded to the challenge, and by fall Carroll Field was in use. Situated directly behind the new science building, its length extended as far as the banks of Waco Creek. At first it was little more than an open space along whose sidelines standing spectators ranged themselves. Not until 1915 was a grandstand erected on the west side, anchored to the sloping side of a wedge-shaped brick athletics building that housed dressing rooms, equipment storage, and coaching facilities. The area served for football, baseball, track, and assorted other sports, and while various circumstances would require temporary off-campus relocations of large events, Carroll Field constituted the true center of Baylor athletics until it was dismantled in 1940.

Though the field has been gone for fifty years, memories of it remain vivid to those who knew it. Former bookstore manager Bob Bright ’46, who grew up near the campus, remembers joining with other neighborhood children to watch games through knotholes in the field’s wooden fence; and retired mathematics and religion professor P. D. Browne ’21 recalls helping to erect that same fence during his student days. One prominent university benefactor who served as trainer for the football team during the 1930s still relives his embarrassment as the players removed his trousers in the end zone, under the fascinated gaze of coeds who watched from windows on the upper floors of the science building.

While the Lariat may originally have overstated Carroll Field’s significance in relation to the facilities of eastern universities, news of it did occasionally trickle through the Ivy League. On February 22, 1926, Baylor graduate Dixon Westor ’25 took time off from his graduate studies at Yale to write to former Baylorite Silas Vance at Harvard about “the fire which burned the [Carroll Field] athletic building down and the sweater of Mr. [Assistant Coach Jim] Crow off.”

The net effect of that fire, which had occurred on the night of February 10, was the reconstruction of the athletics building on a scale 50 percent larger, which also served to increase the limited seating capacity. During the field’s heyday in the 1920s and 1930s, further construction would eventually expand its permanent seating to 12,000 places, with temporary bleachers available to accommodate three thousand more in the end zones.

As the physical plant of the campus expanded, however, the university could no longer afford to devote so large and so central an area to athletics. Construction of Pat Neff Hall in 1939 crowded the western boundary of the field very closely, while the site selected for the new student union building impinged upon the gridiron itself.

In the summer of 1940, the Lariat rounded out Carroll Field’s history by reporting that its bleachers, grandstands, and walls were in the process of being leveled. Today — apart from the memories — only two known relics survive. Several courses of brickwork from the athletics building, uncovered during excavations for the Vera Martin Daniel Fountain Plaza, lie reburied under paving stones near Pat Neff Hall; and the elaborate sign from the Fifth Street gate which proclaimed Carroll Field as the “Home of Baylor Bears” still inclines, half a century later, against a wall in one of the university’s warehouses.

The Fifth Street entrance is now marked by a brick column and partial replica arch in Vera Martin Daniel Plaza (Traditions Square). The original arch was refurbished in 2018 and now resides in the Bill Daniel Student Center. Find out more in the Baylor Proud post “The story behind the Carroll Field sign in the Baylor SUB.” https://www2.baylor.edu/baylorproud/2018/10/the-story-behind-the-carroll-field-sign-in-the-baylor-sub/