Historic Waco Foundation is a volunteer driven organization dedicated to being the storytellers of Waco’s history through the preservation of our historic houses. The foundation was established in 1967, through the merger and incorporation of three common interest groups: the Heritage Society, the Society for Historic Preservation, and the Duncan Foundation. Today, our three historic houses serve an opportunity to preserve Waco's heritage and history, educate the public, and inspire the community. Throughout the year, we offer house tours, as well as field trips for school groups, our Traveling Trunk program, special events, and rotating exhibitions

Historic Waco has three historic homes currently interpreted as museums. We would love for you to stop by and come learn about our history and community during our operating hours!

Due to construction and repairs, the East Terrace House (100 Mill Street) is the only house currently open for public access. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and hope to have them all open again soon!

The mission of Historic Waco Foundation is to preserve the heritage of Waco and McLennan County, Texas for future generations and to present enriching diverse historical experiences for audiences of all ages.

Our mission is fulfilled through educational programming, community lectures, diverse exhibitions, and through our three interpreted house museums that are open to the public: Earle-Napier-Kinnard House, East Terrace House, and McCulloch House.

Historic Waco Foundation is a non-profit organization. The mission of Historic Waco Foundation is to collect, maintain, preserve, publish and interpret the heritage and history of Waco. McLennan County and Texas. The Foundation was formed in 1967 through the merger and incorporation of three common interest groups: The Heritage Society (East Terrace), the society of Historic Preservation (Fort House), and the Duncan Foundation (Earle-Napier-Kinnard House). HWF operates a fourth historic house museum, the McCulloch house. These museums date from 1858 to 1884.

In early 1986, Clark Concrete Company offered the 1890s Victorian cottage which was formerly the home of W. H. Hoffmann, his wife, son Harry and daughters Fay and Bird to Historic Waco Foundation. As it was going to be razed, HWF accepted and moved the house to its present location for use as the Foundations's office.

Funds for the Foundation's preservation, educatin and maintenance programs are provided from several sources including the special events Brazos River Festival, Holidays on the Brazos and other fund-raisers. In additin, other funds are derived from interest income, memberships, hotel/motel tax allocatin from the city's hotel occupancy tax, admissins and gift shop revenues. The Foundation has a membership base of approximately 1000 memberships ( individual and couples).

Educational programs include shool tours, slide presentations on Waco history, lectures on the history of the families that lived inour house museums. A four-month long decorative arts course is taught each year, including lectures on 17th, 18th and 19th century American furniture, architecture, silver, paintings, glass, porcelain and pottery, and costumes and textiles. A winter lecture series and a Victoriana lectue series consisting of three lectures each is conducted each winter and summer. A lecture on a specific area in the decorative arts is provided each spring. An educatinal journal, "Waco Heritage & History" is published three times a year. Another educational program aimed a thrid and fourth grade students is Historic Adventures at East Terrace, a history day camp creating the life of a Victorian child. House museum tours are conducted by trained docents who have completed the Barnes Decorative Arts Course, House family and history course and the interpretive training class. Room interpretatins in the house museums as w3ell as temporary exhibits using HWF's textile collection help to tell the story of Waco in the mid to late 1800s and earl 1900s.