Partners in the popular Cafe Homestead at the Homestead Heritage community near Gholson were making plans Friday to rebuild after an early morning blaze destroyed the handmade log building.
By late morning, only the stone chimney and two or three vertical beams were left standing, the rest of the structure collapsed into a charred and smoldering ruin. But none of the nearby trees, fields or structures had been touched by the flames.
The Elm Mott Volunteer Fire Department arrived at the scene at 608 Dry Creek Road at 1:51 a.m., 11 minutes after receiving a page about the fire, and found the front porch and roof fully engulfed in flame, Fire Chief Tom Klingensmith said.
“The structure was empty at the time the fire started,” Klingensmith said. “We found no one injured when we arrived to fight the fire and no one was injured during the firefighting operations.”
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The popular Café Homestead at Homestead Heritage was destroyed after an early Friday morning blaze destroyed the handmade log building. But plans are already underway to rebuild.
With temperatures estimated at about 10 degrees, fire hydrants were frozen, and fire crews had to use hoses from a tanker truck to attack the blaze, Klingensmith said.
The department got mutual aid assistance from Ross, Gholson, West, Bellmead, Waco and Lacy Lakeview departments. The chief said that when all the support was on-site, he had between 30 and 40 firefighters working.
Klingensmith said the fire burned hot enough to deform the cafe’s metal roof.
Because of the cold and the fast blowing north wind, Klingensmith had many firefighters shift their efforts toward containment and keeping the flames from spreading to nearby trees, structures and fields, he said.
The cause of the fire was undetermined as of Friday morning.
The owners of Cafe Homestead, seen here in 2018, plan to rebuild after a fire early Friday destroyed the structure.
The building was erected by Homestead artisans beginning in 1993 using cedar logs from Mexia, making it the first permanent building at the Christian community that now draws tens of thousands of tourists a year. The cafe is one of the attractions, earning a place this year on Yelp’s top 100 restaurants in Texas. Cafe Homestead officials said they served about 90,000 meals a year.
“Homestead Cafe was more than a building, more than meals it served,” general manager Andrew Taylor said Friday. “It was about relationships we made in the community.”
Taylor said the community will build the structure back, and bigger than before. The community is planning a fundraising dinner for late next month at its church fellowship hall nearby, and aims to open Cafe Homestead at the fellowship hall in February as a temporary location. In the meantime, a barbecue restaurant and coffee shop remain open at the complex, alongside its range of other stores and attractions.
Taylor was joined at the site Friday morning by partners Caleb Tittley and Asahel Adams. The partners said they did not immediately have estimates for the loss and the cost to rebuild, but insurance will help pay for some of the loss.
Taylor said in Friday afternoon text message that builders had estimated, without plans, it could cost $1.2 million or more to build back.
“We’re sorry for the loss of the cafe,” Adams said. “It was the front porch of our community. We’re committed to restore the setting for the Waco community.”
The partners sketched out some ideas for rebuilding as the sun rose over the site. Taylor said they would build a somewhat larger cafe, with a modern kitchen, but maintain the rustic look.
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December 24, 2022 at 07:45AM
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Owners of destroyed cafe at Homestead Heritage plan to rebuild - Waco Tribune-Herald
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