Hundreds of community members gathered Friday morning outside the newly opened Bledsoe-Miller STEAM Center in East Waco, marking the official debut of the city’s newest educational hub.
Before doors opened, the city held a launch ceremony on the roof of the renovated building, formally christening the former community center. Afterward, visitors streamed inside, eager to explore.
Inside the makerspace, brothers Henry and Julian joined their mother, Rachel, as they worked on 3D-printed airplanes. Six-year-old Julian was already thinking ahead.
“I’ve been hoping I can make a dragon,” he said.
For Rachel, the center offers something she says has been missing — a place where both children and adults can engage with science, technology, engineering, arts and math.
“They always talk about wanting to build robots, so I think that’s going to be really cool,” she said. “I’m excited about taking classes like sewing classes.”
The Bledsoe-Miller STEAM Center includes multiple classrooms for school field trips and AARP programming, a teaching kitchen, two computer labs, an immersive lab, a music and podcasting studio, a robotics lab and a new space-themed playground.
Waco City Council member Andrea Barefield, who helped lead the project’s development, said designing programming for all ages was a priority.
“From learning the introductions to playing with robots as a little person, to advancing your technology as a senior … there’s every opportunity,” Barefield said.
The building previously served as the Bledsoe-Miller Community Center, housing recreation facilities until the Doris Miller Community Center assumed that role for East Waco in 2023. Of the city’s community centers, Bledsoe-Miller was among the last to be renovated — a delay that ultimately allowed the city to reimagine the space as a STEAM center.
Barefield said the idea dates back to her first days on the Waco City Council in 2018, after her son attended a technology-focused architecture camp in Dallas.
“They had 3D printers and all kinds of digital labs,” she said. “I was looking around and I was like, we could do this.”
Nearly a decade later, after working through three mayoral administrations, the vision became reality. The $13.7 million renovation was completed earlier this month.
Located on the north side of the Brazos River, the center sits on the edge of East Waco — a historically Black community Barefield said has lacked access to educational enrichment opportunities since the closure of Paul Quinn College in 1990.
“Children can only be what they see,” Barefield said. “This was an opportunity for us to provide an on-ramp — not just for District One, but for Waco as a whole.”
Unlike many STEAM centers across Texas, which are operated by nonprofits or school districts, the Bledsoe-Miller STEAM Center is a city-run facility.
The city has partnered with nonprofit Transformation Waco to staff and program the center, supported by a $1.5 million annual operating budget. Additional partners include SpaceX, Cisco, AARP and Creative Waco.
Local schools have already begun booking field trips, and public programming is expected to begin next month.
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