Bell's Hill School

The hill took its name from a hole in the ground. According to the Baylor Texas Collection, J. D. Bell drilled the first artesian well in Waco in 1886 and later formed the Bell Water Company, which the city bought in 1904. In 1890 one city well was recorded at 1,800 feet and a flow of 1.5 million gallons a day, and Waco came to be called Geyser City. In the 1920s the wells began to run dry as demand, Camp MacArthur's arrival in 1918 and heavy business use drained them.

What the plaque says

Bell's Hill School In March 1886, Joseph D. Bell drilled Waco's first artesian well, and the area around the well became known as Bell's Hill. The Waco School District opened the Sixth District School at 6th and Franklin streets in 1889; it was moved to a new structure at 15th and Burnett by 1904. All district schools were given official names in 1906, and the Sixth District School became Bell's Hill School. The school building collapsed in 1923 because the soil beneath it was unstable. A new structure was erected at the former location of the Bell Water Company's well in 1925. The facility was expanded in 1954, with further expansions and additions made in 1988. In 1998 the school served approximately 600 students. (1998)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Armstrong Browning Library — 1.2 mi
  A three-story Italian Renaissance library on the Baylor campus built to hold A. J. Armstrong's Browning collection, dedicated in December 1951 and now, by its own account, the world's largest of Browning material.
• Dr Pepper Museum — 1.4 mi
  The 1906 bottling plant of the Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company, built where Dr Pepper outgrew a Waco drugstore soda fountain, now the Dr Pepper Museum.
• Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum — 1.8 mi
  The official state repository of Texas Ranger memorabilia, opened in 1968 in Fort Fisher Park on the Brazos, named for a Ranger post of 1837 whose site no one has located.
• Waco Suspension Bridge — 1.8 mi
  A Brazos crossing opened in January 1870 as the longest single-span suspension bridge west of the Mississippi, tolled until 1889, closed to vehicles in 1971 and now walked.

More markers nearby

• Site of Old Texas Cotton Palace — 0.7 mi
• Katy Park — 1.1 mi
• Dr. Andrew Joseph Armstrong and Mary Maxwell Armstrong — 1.2 mi
• The Armstrong Browning Library — 1.2 mi