THE MAGNOLIA EFFECT
In Texas, Waco needed fixing. And TV superstars Chip and Joanna Gaines had just the tools for the job.
A young boy waited patiently for his mother to finish her conversation with an employee at Magnolia Market at the Silos in Waco, Texas. Then he moved in with his own question. “Have you ever met Chip and Joanna?” he asked.
“I have,” the employee replied warmly. “They’re really nice. I’ve met their kids, too. And they’re just about your height.”
The boy looked awestruck as he processed this information. He was one degree of separation from the Gaineses, the Fixer Upper stars and parents of five who have transformed the economically depressed Lone Star city into a pilgrimage site for home renovators, interior design enthusiasts and family-time sentimentalists. Waco calls itself the Heart of Texas, and Chip and Jo have helped recharge its ticker.
“Out of nowhere, millions of people started showing up,” said Ashley Thornton, a longtime resident who runs the Act Locally Waco website. “If I’m travelling and wearing a Waco T-shirt, people will come up to me and tell me that Waco is on their bucket list. It’s the most fascinating phenomena.”
The “phenomena,” by the way, has a name. It’s called the Magnolia Effect, after the Gaineses’ company and Joanna’s favourite tree.
Last year, Waco received about 2.6 million guests. On average, 30,000 people visit the Magnolia
Market complex a week, or about 1.6 million a year, according to the Waco Convention and Visitors Bureau. The Alamo, one of the state’s most popular historic attractions, receives about 20,000 more people a year, but the mission had a nearly 300-year head start.
Like many, I solemnly linked the city to the federal agents’ siege of the Branch Davidian compound in 1993, which resulted in nearly 80 deaths. (Locals are quick to inform out-of-towners that the sect’s facility was not in Waco; it was about 18 kilometres away.) A Texan friend warned me to avoid the topic of the Davidians; if I needed a safe subject, talk about football.
After five seasons of Fixer Upper, Waco and the Gaineses seem inextricably linked. For months, I waited for a lull between projects, but it never came. The Gaineses throw out new ventures like a baseball pitching machine.
So I settled on mid-november, a few weeks after Magnolia Press opened. I discovered a few advantages to going sooner rather than later. I could afford one — and only one — night in a Fixer Upper rental. I could find a free parking spot. And I only had to wait 15 minutes for a cupcake at Silos Baking Co.
A quick recap for people who have been living without cable. Chip and Joanna Gaines starred in Fixer Upper, which ran from 2013 to last year. In the HGTV series, the Waco-based couple show their clients three houses in the area, including one that looks as if a tumbleweed could knock it down. The customers inevitably choose the most decrepit structure, which the duo transform from rags to riches.
Much to the couple’s chagrin, many of their Fixer Upper clients have moved out of their homes and rented them instead. For example, you can spend the night in the Little House on the Prairie, the German Schmear, the Mailander, the Mid-mod and the Harp House, which I imagine contains at least one pair of the candlesticks that Clint Harp carved for the couple’s remodelled properties. (Harp sells the home accessories next door at Harp Design Co.) The Gaineses also run three rental properties, including the Carriage House from season 3 which costs US$545 a night.
I booked the Shotgun House, which appeared in one of my favourite episodes. (Season 3, No. 14.) The Keebler-cute house looked exactly the same, with one exception: the ladder to the loft. Chip had built a pulley system, so the couple could raise and lower the staircase. I remember sitting on my couch at home, thinking: Well, there’s a broken coccyx waiting to happen. Cameron and Jessie Bell, the owners, must have agreed, though their reasoning was probably more like: Well, there’s a lawsuit waiting to happen. The staircase is no longer retractable.
Waco averages 230 days of sunshine a year; my first morning was not one of them. The sky was gunmetal grey, and the cold burrowed into my bones. I needed a jolt of warmth. Magnolia Press was set up for a long and winding queue. Several employees were standing at attention, ready to fill orders. But at that hour, in this weather, there weren’t many.
I sauntered up to the front, ordered a coffee and inquired about the baked goods preening on a cake stand. An employee recommended the cream-filled Magnolia Press chocolate cake, which she compared favourably to a Ding Dong, and the lemon-blueberry roll. She had kind words for the artichoke, spinach and cream cheese croissant and the coffee cake muffin, too.
At Silos Baking Co., an employee stationed by the front door was handing out order cards and pencils. While I waited for the line inside to move up and out the side door, I asked about her favourite cupcake flavours. She mentioned strawberries and cream and lemon-lavender, clearly not falling for the clever ringers: the all-white Shiplap or the pecan- and walnut-studded Nuts & Bolts.
Inside the retail store, an employee dropped a tip in my lap: The couple had recently purchased a castle. Their plans for the property were a secret, but the address wasn’t. I drove out to the century-old stone mansion with the foreboding gate and noticed a black Jeep creeping behind me. I approached the passenger window and saw a middle-aged woman gripping a hand-drawn map. Her husband was in the driver’s seat, resigned to the fact that he was going to spend his vacation shuttling his wife around Waco on a reality-tv-themed treasure hunt.
Ten fans from across the country piled into a minibus for a tour, willing to squish for Chip and Joanna. Joey Macarthur, a comedian and video-game creator from Washington state, was behind the wheel. In addition to running the Fixer Upper tour company, Joey and his wife, Tami, own an antiques store and lead workshops where visitors can make French-country-style tea towels, tiles and pillow covers with Iron Orchid Designs moulds.
We checked off several Fixer Upper houses before reaching the Brazos River, where 25 bronze statues of longhorn cattle storm the riverbanks. Several bridges, including the single-span suspension bridge from 1870, arc gracefully over the water. We passed Baylor University (Chip and Joanna are alums) and caught the back end of a bison in Cameron Park Zoo.
We cruised by more houses touched by the Gaineses. Joey released a stream of comic comments tinged with nosy neighbour observations.
Joey’s voice softened when he spoke about his favourite makeover, the Graham House. In season 4, the Gaineses renovated the 800-square-foot residence of a military veteran and his ailing wife. Sherry Graham died of cancer before the episode aired. Her husband, Bill, still lives there.
“He didn’t want to move,” said Joey. “It reminds him of his wife.”
Joey made three stops during our half-day excursion. We popped into Harp Design Co.; the Little Shop on Bosque, which sells discounted Magnolia goods; and Sironia, a collection of independent boutiques with a café in the middle. We shopped, we ate, we
Gainesed.
I spent the remainder of my time at Magnolia Market. On the morning of the big game between Baylor and the University of Oklahoma, I followed a crowd of people dressed in green and gold through the market gates. We dispersed — to the food trucks and garden shop, the picnic tables and swings.
I walked onto the synthetic lawn, where children constructed their dream condos out of wooden blocks. I found an empty beanbag chair and lowered myself into its lap, surrendering to the Waco Effect.
Information: wacoheartoftexas.com