Page 19 - Waxahachie, TX Residential Design Guidelines

IntroductIon

New buildings of frame, stone, or brick construction replaced
the cruder log or handplaned lumber dwellings. The spring 1884
election authorized “a local ad valorem tax for the maintenance
and operation of a public school system,” establishing the
Waxahachie Independent School District; the district failed in three
years, but restarted in 1889. The district “provided local tax support
for both the white and African‐American schools.” Little information
exists about how African American children were educated in
Waxahachie prior to the district’s establishment, but African
American churches likely provided education.

The arrival of the Waxahachie Tap Railroad in 1879 affected
virtually all aspects of life in the community. The Houston and
Texas Central Railway eventually took control of the railroad. The
Fort Worth and New Orleans Railroad, later absorbed into the
Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad system, reached Waxahachie
in 1886, and its tracks were built on the south side of town. In
1907, the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railroad established a line
connecting Waxahachie with Corsicana to the east.

As was true of so many other communities, the arrival of
rail service proved a critical factor in the town’s history and
development. Waxahachie’s dramatic population increase from
1,354 in 1870 to 3,076 in 1880 provides evidence of the industry’s
contribution to the local economy. The railroad provided cheap
transportation of goods into and out of the community, and
merchants had access to goods that previously had been
unattainable or too expensive to transport. Areas adjacent to the
railroad and near the commercial district developed into the town’s
primary shipping and industrial centers.

The cotton industry was perhaps the greatest benefactor, as bales
would be shipped easier, faster, in greater quantities, and for a
significantly cheaper price than ever before. In 1890, President
Benjamin Harrison’s son visited the town as the publisher of Frank
Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper as part of a three‐part series on
Texas exploring how “no State in the Union had since the war
undergone a greater transformation than Texas . . . we know it will
astonish the great majority of our readers, and especially those
who have thought Texas as an out‐of‐the‐way, half‐settled, cattle‐
raising country with little or nothing to commend it to the settler
or the investor.” The subsequent article, titled “Waxahachie: A
Premium Agricultural City,” included illustrations of the booming
town and described it as having “a large brick public school
building for the white, and a commodious two‐story building

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