LEGACY FACE VALUE: The oldest operating courthouse in the state was the beneficiary of a $4.5 million restoration grant from the Texas Historical Commission. Don Henley (inset photo) also helped fund that project.
TEXAS HISTORICAL COMMISSION
Committed
Cass TO
COUNTY WAYNE WENDEL; DALLASNEWS.COM
Music legend Don Henley is supporting his hometown’s history by SUSAN GAMMAGE
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T’S NOT SURPRISING that recording artist Don Henley’s last album was titled Cass County. Or that the cover photo was taken in front of the 1939 Linden Firehouse. Or that the other album photos were taken in and around the East Texas town of Linden. Henley, lead vocalist for the legendary rock band the Eagles, is devoted to his hometown of Linden, the Cass County seat. He still owns a farm outside town and returns there regularly to recharge. He attributes hiding in his father’s cornfields and the wide-open spaces of the county to fueling his imagination as a child, and later as a songwriter. He’s proud of his roots and has committed both time and money to preserving the historic and natural resources of Cass County, as well as nearby Caddo Lake. In 2004, the centerpiece of Henley’s hometown — the 1861 Cass County Courthouse — was the recipient of a planning grant through the Texas Historical Commission’s (THC) Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program to produce construction documents. Four years later, the THC awarded a nearly $4.5 million construction grant to restore the oldest-operating courthouse in the state. Pieces of the original antebellum, red brick courthouse can still be seen throughout the existing 1934 version of the building, including an original fireplace and window openings.
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